Married Life
by The Amazing Aliano
Summary: Ever wonder what happens after happily ever after? Welcome to a series of one shots delving into the married life of Sarah and Jareth.
1. In the Dark

This is intended to be a series of one-shots, about Sarah dealing with her new life with Jareth, living in his castle and learning to use her magic (because she always seems to have magic in these, doesn't she?). It's not about how they got together and got married, but how they cope with married life. I hope you enjoy!

AA

Jareth sighed, wondering where his young wife had gotten to now. Sarah managed to get herself lost at least once a day, and that was just in the castle alone. Not for the first time he wondered just how she'd managed to get through the Labyrinth. Then he remembered, as he always did, that she had help on that one. They had not been married long, but he was already beginning to consider keeping her on a retractable leash. He conjured a crystal so as to find her, but all he could see was darkness. He frowned into it, starting to worry a bit. Just where exactly was she?

AA

Sarah slowly walked forward with her hands stretched out in front of her. Her eyes were wide open, trying to catch any glimpse of light in the darkness. She had no idea where she was, only that she had been exploring some region of the castle she didn't think she had visited before (or rather, she had taken a wrong turn somewhere and was forced to try and find a way back again), and opened a door, seeing only darkness within. She had been intrigued and wandered in, and the door had closed behind her, shutting her in. That had been her first mistake; walking in. She had been very surprised when she turned around to fumble for the door only to find she couldn't figure out where it was. No matter how many times she ran her hands over the walls, she couldn't find any indentation or rise to suggest a door, let alone a door knob. All that met her exploring hands was slightly cold smooth stone, much like the stone of the rest of the castle.

Her next mistake, she thought reflectively as she walked carefully forward, had been to walk away from the area where she thought the door was. She had walked along the wall to try and find another edge, but it just kept on going. Then came her biggest mistake; she stepped away from the wall. She had thought, rather stupidly, now she knew, that perhaps she would be able to find another wall and with it, a way out. She had walked away from her wall towards what she had hoped would be the centre of the room, with her arms out. After a while of finding nothing, she turned back to go back to her wall. Except… except she had been walking now for quite a while, and she still hadn't come into contact with the original wall. Panic was beginning to set in, but she pressed forward, because, well, what else could she do?

A voice in her mind answered that she could try calling her husband, but she scowled at that thought. He would either laugh at her again for getting lost, or ask once again just how had she managed to solve the Labyrinth, or quite possibly he would get angry with her for being so foolish. Then again he could get angry at her for not calling him in the first place. But, damn it, she wasn't a helpless child, she was his wife! She should be able to find her way through her own home, surely? She stubbornly decided she could get out of this on her own.

Perhaps she should get Jareth to make her something like a Marauder's Map when she got out of here, she contemplated. Though first she would have to explain exactly what one was.

After another twenty minutes, she stopped. Perhaps, she hoped, she would hear something that would lead to an exit. She kept still and breathed quietly in and out through her mouth, listening intently. Without her eyes, her ears had become supersensitive, and had picked up every rustle from her clothes, every light step upon the floor, but now that she had stopped, silence pressed in around her. There was absolutely no sound. She swallowed nervously, hearing her throat push down the saliva but nothing else. The complete lack of sound was terrifying her, and in desperation, she started humming. There, that was better. Things were not so scary with a bit of noise, she thought. She started to inch her way forward again, humming 'If You're Happy and You Know It.'

AA

Jareth had searched every oubliette in the Labyrinth and had still not found Sarah. Just what exactly had happened to her? She had gone up to their room after breakfast to 'freshen up,' whatever that meant, and he had not seen her since. He had searched their room, and then surrounding rooms, and still nothing. He knew everything there was to know about this castle, so if she was here, he would find her.

He tried to think about it logically. She was in complete darkness, so that ruled out a lot of places already. A closet perhaps? It would just like his wife to get herself trapped in a closet and be too stubborn to call for help. He renewed his search.

He could, of course, just ask her through a crystal, but where was the fun in that?

AA

It wasn't long before Sarah was frowning and stopping again. She hummed a bit louder, and then a bit louder. She couldn't hear an echo. In such a large space, she should be able to hear something of an echo, or something in the way her voice carried through the space that would signify a large area. Just what the hell had she walked into? She tried shouting, but achieved nothing except making her throat sore. She sighed and crumpled to the floor. There had to be something she could do, she just wasn't thinking about it right.

There was that smell, too, she thought distractedly. A smell she knew so well and couldn't place. What was it? It was so familiar she had barely noticed it at first, and she knew it so well she couldn't remember what it was. She frowned, and tried to focus on thinking of a way out.

After ten minutes of sitting there, she gave up. "Jareth!"

AA

Well, she wasn't in a closet, Jareth knew that much. She was definitely still in the castle, though. He could feel her somewhere here, but not precisely where. He conjured up another crystal with her position, with the intention of making her tell him where she was, and to make her stop being so stubborn, when she called to him.

"Jareth!"

Ah, he thought, focusing on her call. _There_ she was. But… what in the Underground was she doing in there?

He appeared right next to her, in the darkness without so much as a sound. "Jareth!" She shouted again, sounding mad this time rather than desperate.

"Yes?" He asked, making her scream.

"Don't do that!" Her voice sounded angry, and he felt her fingers brush his legs before they grabbed him and pulled him down.

He was pulled down to her and grasped so tightly the wind was knocked out of him with an, 'oof!' He smiled into her hair and held her, breathing her in. Sarah in turn breathed deeply into his chest, and she realised just what that smell had been; him.

Things hadn't turned out all that bad, Jareth thought. He was in a dark room alone with his wife clinging to him for dear life. He wondered if she would object to him taking her right there. Then she hit him, and he decided that yes, she probably would.

"Get me out of here!" She demanded. No sooner had the words come out of her mouth then they appeared in the corridor outside, leaving her to blink at the sudden light. She pulled back from him and said, "What took you so long?"

He frowned indignantly. "Now see here, you know I can't just find you if I don't know where you are and you don't call me. I couldn't tell where you were." She hit him again, then hugged him close.

"It was horrible," she moaned.

"What were you doing in there in the first place?" Jareth asked curiously.

"Well, I, um, kind of got lost again," Jareth suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, "and I was testing doorways and found that. It looked interesting, I wanted to see what it was." Her tone was defensive.

Jareth sighed. "I believe you humans have a saying, 'curiosity killed the cat'?"

She just glared at him as he stood up and helped her up.

"What is that room, anyway? And what is it doing in the castle?"

Jareth looked at her and said in a deadpan voice, "It's where I put the losers of the Labyrinth."

Her eyes widened in shock as she contemplated the horror of being stuck in that room forever. Jareth looked back at her in all seriousness before he broke out into laughter, unable to keep it in anymore. His wife's scowling face only made it harder to stop. "It's not funny," she said, crossing her arms. She had that look on her face, and Jareth managed to squash his laughter down. That look usually implied she would be having a 'headache' that night and was best not aggravated further.

"No, all right, it's not for that," he said, starting to move away to return to his throne room.

"So what _is_ it for?" She asked, chasing after him.

"Hmm, oh, nothing important," he replied, waving the matter away with his hand.

She stopped and glared at him before running back up to his side and saying, "If it's nothing important then you can tell me, can't you?"

He glanced sideways at her and said, "Why do you want to know so much?"

"Why are you trying to keep it from me? I was just trapped in there for ages, it was terrifying, and I want to know what something like that is doing in my home!" She panted a little

He stopped and faced her, cocking his head on one side. A small smile reached his lips as he reached out a hand to gently brush her cheek. "I'm sorry," he said seriously, "if you thought I was keeping something from you. It really is nothing of great importance, just a failed idea."

Her skin tingled to his touch and without her even realising her lips had parted as soon as his hand touched her, gloves or no. "What idea?" She asked, noticing her voice sounded a little breathless, annoying her.

His smile turned into a smirk as his eyebrows rose and said, "Ah well, it seemed like really good one at the time." He dropped his hand and resumed his walk, Sarah stepping in beside him, staring at him curiously. "I was running out of room, and thought an endless room would be quite useful. I didn't think it through properly though, and lost several things in there, I'm afraid, but I have since modified the idea suitably." He chuckled to himself and staring straight ahead as he walked, said, "It was supposed to be my new wardrobe." He kept walking, fully aware that she had stopped and was staring at him. He suppressed the laughter, wishing he could see her expression but glad that she couldn't see his.

"You're not serious?" She said, coming up behind him. He made no reply. "Jareth?" He quickened his pace ever so slightly, wanting to laugh but wanting to escape his wife at the same time. "Jareth!"

He laughed as he started to run, fully aware of her pelting after him, especially as she started to curse him. He was sure he would be made to sleep elsewhere tonight, but right now, right _now_, it was so worth it.

Later, after she had finished not talking to him, she would ask him why she hadn't been able to find the door. He would reply, as though it was obvious, "Well, I wouldn't want anyone who was trying to steal my outfits to get out with them again, would I?"

AA

And so begins my little stories of the life of Sarah and Jareth.

I just found this sitting waiting to be published, so I thought, meh, why not? According to my notes, I have the next chapter half way done, and at least four ideas after that. Yay. The characters will stay pretty much as they are now, although perhaps Sarah will become more enlightened as to the ways of the Underground as we go on. Maybe.

Anyway, let me know what you think of this chapter!


	2. Ice Cream Deprivation

**Ice Cream Deprivation**

Sarah missed ice cream. A freezer was one thing the castle just could not provide. There was a cold room, underground and made of marble, that substituted for a fridge, and all the fruit and vegetables were freshly grown within the Labyrinth so there was no microwave-steamed frozen broccoli for her.

The fresh food was nice and everything, and she was sure the fact that everything was locally grown was great, but god, did she miss her ice cream. The chocolate could be kept anywhere (1) but ice cream needed to be frozen, hence why it was called ice cream and not just 'quite cold cream.'

She sighed mournfully as she walked into the throne room, where her husband was draped over his throne surrounded by drinking goblins. He looked up as he heard the sigh.

"Hello love," he said with his usual easy smile. Then he frowned at her sad smile. "Sarah? Whatever's wrong?"

She trudged over to him as he moved into a sitting position and curled up on his lap. "I miss Ben and Jerry," she said with a sigh, her arms around his neck.

Jareth forced himself to stay relaxed. Just who exactly were Ben and Jerry? Perhaps, he considered, they were family. "You want to go and see them?" He asked, hoping to get more information.

Sarah frowned and sat up. "You can do that?" She had never really considered before what she could use her husband's powers for. It wasn't like his royalty was recognised Overground, but he did have magical powers, so perhaps he could wipe their memories afterwards. It would certainly be fun to meet the creators of joys such as Phish Food, Dublin Mudslide and Chunky Monkey.

"I am the Goblin King," Jareth pointed out. If his tone was somewhat smug and condescending, it was only because he was somewhat smug and condescending sometimes. "There is little I cannot do."

"Hmm," Sarah said. "Oh but, I think one of them is dead. Well, that's the rumour I heard," she said, trying to remember where she had heard it.

"Don't you know?" If they were family members, as he hoped they were and not former boyfriends, then really if one of them had died she should know.

"Well, no. Why would I?" Sarah asked. She didn't exactly stalk the guys. Just worship them from afar for giving her comfort when the worst happened, for brightening up the gloomiest of days and for making even the most boring of films that little bit better.

Jareth frowned, something was amiss here. "Aren't they people you know?"

Sarah blinked at him then laughed. "No no no, I don't know them!" She exclaimed.

Jareth felt very confused now, and a little mad that she was laughing at him. "Then how could you possibly miss them?"

"Well, when I said I miss Ben and Jerry what I really meant was that I missed what they create." She sighed and her eyes gained a far away look. "The best ice cream in the world…"

"All this is about ice cream?" Jareth asked incredulously. He had started to get worried for a moment there, and it turned out that she just missed a comfort food.

"It's not any ice cream, Jareth, it's gorgeous ice cream that tastes _so good_…" If Sarah was drooling, she didn't care.

Jareth frowned. "It's just ice cream," he started.

"Just ice cream?" Sarah interrupted. She was staring at him, wondering if this blasphemy had really come out of his mouth. "Just ice cream? Jareth, this is Ben and Jerry's. Ben and Jerry's!"

Jareth's eyebrow raised at the crazy woman who was once his wife. Ice cream deprivation had apparently gotten to her, and he was wondering whether they were going to have another Chocolate Incident on their hands. He tried to make his voice calming as he said, "Now Sarah, do you really need this ice cream so much? No matter how delicious it is, it is not something you cannot live without, surely?" He hoped his reasonable approach would win her over.

"NO!" Apparently not. She pushed away from him and leapt up, pacing the room. "I need to have this ice cream, Jareth, but more importantly I need you to see, no, _taste_ just exactly why I miss it so!" She glanced over at him who now looked as though he was reconsidering the whole marriage thing. She toned down the crazy, taking a new tactic and said, "Okay, fine, I don't need it, it isn't essential to my life, but it does make it just that little bit better. Any ice cream makes things better."

Jareth considered her words. "What kinds of things?" He asked sceptically. At the time, it had been an innocent question. Sarah, however, saw it's potential.

"All kinds of things," she said, sidling closer. She cupped his face in her hand and leaned in towards him with a small secretive smile on her lips. "Ice cream melts, you know, and if you get any on you, well, it just has to be licked off." She whispered huskily into his ear, "Wouldn't you like to lick ice cream off me, Jareth?" She moved back and took in his lustful face and inwardly cheered. She might be getting ice cream after all.

Jareth suddenly rose, grabbing Sarah. At once they were in their bedroom and he snarled, "Wait here," and disappeared.

Sarah blinked and wondered if she had gone too far. His expression had been closed off, unreadable and dark. She sighed and sat down on their bed. Perhaps someone had wished away a poor unfortunate child, and he had to deal with that. Or maybe he didn't like her manipulating him and had gone to get something to punish her. Not that that would be so bad. She sighed again and waited.

After about half an hour in which she had gotten very bored and had invented a new game (2) Jareth suddenly appeared before her. In his hands was a tub of Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream.

Before Sarah even had a chance to squeal in delight and snatch in away from him he had pushed her back onto the bed and straddled her, leaning in towards her. "Now then," he said, his face very close to hers. "Tell me more about this ice cream licking…"

A few days later Jareth had tampered with a freezer he took from Overground so that it could be powered by a goblin on a bicycle, and woe betide that goblin if he stopped, or any other goblin if they took anything from inside. His majesty had been very clear that the contents – this 'ice cream' her majesty seemed so fond of – were strictly off limits to anyone who didn't want to go for a swim in the Bog of Eternal Stench (3).

AA

(1) But was kept securely locked in her room after she found the goblins eating her precious supply one day. Which was better for everyone, really. She had been extremely hard to live with until Jareth took her to get more.

(2) It involved her shoes, her husband's clothes and a stick of celery...

(3) One had tried it and was now shunned by the rest of the Goblin community, living in the furthest outreaches of the Labyrinth far away from unsuspecting noses. He still maintained it had been worth it.

* * *

Yay, another random chapter done. Although I think this chapter says more about me than it does anything else…

I was trying something different with this chapter, the whole footnotes thing, and I think it worked, but meh, what do I know? Let me know what you think (about the footnotes, not about what I know. Though if you really want to you can, I guess) and any comments about the chapter as a whole will be greatly appreciated.


	3. Duties as a Husband

**Duties as a Husband**

It had been a rather odd sort of day, Jareth reflected. Sarah lately had been saying odd things, such as, 'Do you know what date it is?' and 'So should I keep the rest of my week open?' He had cautiously answered no, while secretly wondering why she should need to keep the rest of her week open, or indeed what she would ordinarily be doing that might interfere with whatever it was that she was going on about.

Today, she had been… edgy. She kept on glancing at him surreptitiously with such an expectant, hopeful face that was quickly schooled away whenever he looked at her. As the day wore on and he went about his duties, he noticed how the hopeful look faded to a gloomier one, and the cryptic things she was saying increased.

"So, it's just another day, right?" She had asked. "Just a day like any other in the Underground, yep…"

"I suppose," he had answered. Perhaps, he had thought, she was growing tired of life with him. But up until very recently, they had been happy. Very happy, in fact. So why the sudden turn around? He thought that it might have something to do with that 'PMS' she had mentioned whenever she got moody and cranky, whereupon shortly after she would attempt to eat her own weight in chocolate, both of the solid and ice cream variety. Yes, he had thought, that must be it. Still, he didn't like the look of the frown that formed after he agreed with her.

Thankfully he had not had to stick around to find out why; her friends came to visit her. Jareth was always polite to them, for Sarah's sake, and them to him, but neither he nor they were going to kid themselves; they would never become friends. Those three were just so… common. And weird. Jareth had stood quietly when they entered and civilly welcomed them, and then he quickly made his exit. He had better things to do then exchange pleasantries with those three. He just hoped they would cheer up his wife.

Some time later, while he was amusing himself weaving crystals between his hands sitting in the window, he had heard his wife enter. He had turned to smile at her, and while she had been smiling before, when she saw him it faded into a hurt look. It was quickly masked and she moved away, expressionless.

Just what exactly was going on, he wondered. Maybe, a little goblin of his mind whispered, her friends were turning her against him. Maybe they had pointed out that he could be oh so very cruel sometimes, and that really she deserved so much better than him… He shook his head against these negative thoughts though; Sarah loved him, and he her, no matter what anyone else said. Still, it was hard to ignore that little goblin…

They were getting ready for bed and Sarah had progressed from hurt to silently seething. She was angry, but he still did not have a clue about what. She was throwing back the covers rather more forcefully than usual and was very tensely getting changed, her movements stiff and abrupt.

Jareth couldn't take it anymore. "Sarah, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said, in a tone that definitely suggested something was wrong. She folded her clothes with more care than usual and shoved them into a drawer.

"Well there must be something," he said, frowning.

"Oh must there?" That look in her eye was a dangerous one. "Why must there?"

"Because you are being all…" He trailed, looking for the right word.

"Being all what, Jareth?"

He was treading on dangerous grounds here. "You seem mad…"

"And why would I be mad?"

"That's what I'm asking you."

"You're my husband; you should know," she said coolly. He thought that was rather unfair; being a husband did not make one a mind reader. He felt it was better not to point this out, though.

"Evidently, I don't," he said, his annoyance starting to taint his voice.

"Well that's not my problem," she said, taking out her earrings.

He growled in frustration. "This conversation is not getting us anywhere."

"Oh that's right," she snapped, fixing her eyes on his. "Give up because it doesn't even matter, does it? If it's not to do with you and your well-being then it's inconsequential, isn't it?" She glared over at him across the bed.

"What are you talking about?" He asked, exasperated.

"You know what, Jareth? I'm going to sleep in one of the guest rooms tonight, because I honestly think if I stay in here with you one of us will end up dead," she said walking to the door.

"Sarah!" He called after her, starting to follow.

"No, Jareth!" She sighed from the doorway, not turning to look at him as her head dropped into her hand. "Just leave it, will you?" Her voice was quiet and made him unsure, which Sarah used to her advantage and slipped out the door.

AA

Jareth sat on her side of the bed, staring into the crystal in his hand. Within it was the image of his wife, finally having settled after crying herself to sleep. For the first time he considered that this might just be his fault. But how could he fix things if he didn't even know what he had done wrong? Though he hated it, there was only one option left to him. He really didn't want to have to do this, but he wanted the woman he loved back where she belonged; with him, in his bed and in his arms.

With a sigh he stood and his clothes changed. He hoped the late night hour would not sour the person he was going to see.

AA

Of course person, Jareth thought looking at Hoggle, was such a lose term. Hoggle was a dwarf and an underling, but if Jareth wanted to know what was going on with Sarah, Hoggle would more than likely know, especially since he had only visited her just today. He hated to think the gardener might know his wife better than he, but he did not know what else to try.

Hoggle had not been impressed when he found the Goblin King at his door. It was thirteen o'clock at night, for crying out loud. Didn't a dwarf deserve a little peace? However, his annoyance was equal to, or perhaps even outweighed by his fear, for the king was still the king; a terrible man who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted and would tear down any who stood in his way.

"What do you want?" Hoggle asked, putting on a bravado. He felt fairly confident that the king would not harm him, not unless he wanted to incur Sarah's wrath. But still, he kept the king where he could see him.

Jareth raised a brow at the insolence but let it pass; he wanted answers from the dwarf that would be more easily gained with kindness rather than force. "You came to see Sarah today," he stated, watching the little man.

Hoggle frowned and said, "Yes, what of it?"

Jareth paused for a split seconds hesitation, wondering if he really wanted Hogbrain knowing about his and Sarah's private life, but reminded himself that this had to be done. "She is mad at me," he said, testing the waters. He said it as fact rather than a question, but they both heard the 'why' implied in his voice.

Hoggle grunted. "I ain't surprised."

Jareth gritted his teeth; the pustule was not going to make this easy for him. "She confides in you, does she not? Tell me; why is she mad?"

"You do know what date it is today, don't you?" Hoggle said, raising one eyebrow at the king.

'Of course," he said irritably, "it is the twelfth of December. What of it?"

"The twelfth of December?" Hoggle said, hinting. "It's a day that comes but once a year, different from all other days for Sarah?"

Jareth frowned and was about to demand the dwarf explain himself when it suddenly hit him. "Ah," he said, realisation dawning. "Oh no…" He felt the blood drain out of his face and the realisation not only fully dawned but beat down on him with a vengeance.

"Right," Hoggle said, enjoying the moment more than he thought he would. He tried not to let it show though, for fear of repercussion. Not that Jareth would have noticed right then. He had just realised that he had completely forgotten his wife's birthday.

* * *

Silly me, I thought 'I know, I'll post this on Jennifer Connelly's birthday.' Then I look it up and find out I only have five days in which to write something good enough. Ah well, at least I could post it fairly quickly. 

There is a part two coming up to this, which will be up, um… soon. Ish. After all my peer assessments…


	4. Grovelling of a Husband

**Groveling of a Husband**

The castle was eerily silent that morning. The quietness thundered over the stones, whispering along the walls and floors like mist, seeping into every room. If there had been tumbleweed in the Labyrinth it would have been blowing through the hallways and across the courtyards, its soft brushing the only sound to echo around the great building.

As it was the Labyrinth did not have tumbleweed, but something similar in shape and texture, and only in shape and texture, known as 'fartbush.' If this had been tumbling through the castle it would have been known, not only for its smell, something akin to that of the Bog of Eternal Stench, but for the gentle farting noises it made as it hit the floor (or anything else, for that matter). Fartbush was not, strangely enough, all that common, and there was a movement to protect the plant from which it originated, the _ventus frutex_, as in recent years it was disappearing fast. This might have been because certain members of the Labyrinth's gardening force were strongly opposed to its existence and were doing everything they could to eradicate it, but the point was that even if the _ventus frutex_ was not all but extinct, it would not have been found within the castle thanks to the unwelcome smell its dry fartbush left behind.

One room in particular was filled with a heavy silence that was both decidedly chilly in atmosphere but at the same time somehow simmering with the heat of annoyance and anger. It was the room where Jareth and Sarah were eating their breakfast.

Sarah was not in the best of moods. She had found out the hard way that none of the other rooms in the castle were set up to take unexpected guests, and had therefore had to sleep on an unmade bed, cold and alone. And she, she thought angrily as she sat there, should not be the one suffering here; he should be! He had better have a damn good reason for not remembering her birthday. If he's even realised that's what he's done, she thought, saddened. It was quite possible that he still had no idea what was going on, and that he would think she was just in a bad mood or something. That line of thought led to her drowning herself in ice cream, a cold, but not necessarily unpleasant death. But no, she thought, sitting up straight and putting her shoulders back. She was a queen now, and queens did not blubber their sorrows in huge vats of ice cream over something like their husbands forgetting their birthdays. No, they got mad. Stay mad, she told herself. Madness is the only way to keep it together… No wait, that didn't sound quite right…

Across from her, Jareth seemed to be quite calm and collected. Outwardly it would seem that today was a day like any other that he would tackle as he did ordinarily; look bored and annoyed with the goblins, prance around a bit to keep himself amused, maybe have a quickie with the wife at some point and generally make sure his kingdom was in order. Inwardly, however, was an entirely different story. Inwardly he was keeping an eye on his wife, who he expected at any moment to unleash her wrath upon him as only a woman could. He was worrying that she had not said anything, just had coolly said good morning to him and sat down to eat her bearfruit (rather like a grapefruit but found growing out of the armpits of Labyrinthian bears. Not that Sarah knew that; she just thought it was an odd name and Jareth was not about to correct her, especially not now). He wondered what she was thinking. Her face looked sharper than usual, but was devoid of, well, anything. As though she didn't want to let him know what she was thinking. Which would be so typical, he thought. He hadn't known what to say to her, and so the silence had begun. Now he looked at her over his untouched meal, wondering what exactly was going to happen.

His mind jumped to the worst case scenario; she could leave him. She could divorce him and leave, going back home to her family, effectively crushing his heart beneath her heel and spitting on it a few times for good measure, leaving him a broken man for about five minutes before he got pissed off enough to follow her and shout at her, claiming ridiculous things like that he never loved her anyway, and that he was just using her and that he hated her and that she had stupid hair… His mind, he reflected, could be rather childish sometimes. Sarah was right; he needed more adult company, not just her and the goblins. But then Sarah was always right. That was why he needed her so.

He coughed and said, taking the first step, "Could you please pass the water?"

He almost expected it thrown at him, but Sarah, without even glancing at him, picked up the jug of water and put it down with a thump near him. He sighed mentally; he seemed as though he would just have to, as Sarah would say, 'suck it up' and apologise.

"Sarah."

She nodded her head in acknowledgement but didn't look at him. When he did not say anything further she finally looked at him, her lips slightly pursed and her eyebrows raised.

"Sarah, I am sorry," he told her, looking her directly in the eyes.

"Oh?" She looked down at her plate and speared a piece of bearfruit on her fork. "Really."

"Yes," he said, leaning towards her. "I truly am."

"Do you even know why you're sorry, Jareth?" She challenged, raising her fork near her mouth as she spoke, then popped the chunk in her mouth and picked up her glass of water.

"Sarah, my dearest, I am sorry that I forgot your birthday." She looked at him now, the hurt shining in her eyes through the fierce pride. "I will make it up to you," he promised.

She scoffed a little and said, "Oh you will, will you? And how do you plan on doing that?"

He had not gotten that far yet. So far the plan had been to make her talk to him again and apologise sincerely. Maybe get her a pretty trinket. He was beginning to think she was not going to let him off that easily.

"Sarah, I can only apologise so many times. What more can I say? I have a gift for you, but I wanted to ask for forgiveness first," he said. Which was not necessarily untrue. He had wanted to say he was sorry before giving her a present, and while he did have something in mind to give her, it wasn't exactly… finished yet. Or started, for that matter.

"You want my forgiveness, huh?" She smiled wryly and got up, leaving the table. As she left she said, "Keep trying, honey."

AA

It took him all morning to design it, and then a trip to Sarah's old world to decide that they were incapable of making what he had in mind so he considered going to the dwarf realm to have it made by them before he realised they would not be able to handle anything so delicate, so the task was left to him. It took him a further six hours to make it himself, including all the time he spent correcting any flaws. Finally, before dinner, he had it finished. He just hoped it would meet the standards of his wife.

He found her in the dining room – rather small for a castle but perfect for their day to day needs – and approached her with a façade of quiet confidence to hide how nervous he felt. She was stood by the window, looking out at the Labyrinth that surrounded their home. She had adjusted well to a twenty-six hour day here, not seeming to mind an extra hour in bed and an extra hour awake. In fact, she had adjusted well to life as a whole in the Labyrinth, he realised, and never once complained about leaving her home. She had given up so much to be with him, and he found himself thinking for the first time that he might not deserve her. Things would have to change. He took a deep breath and gently touched her on the shoulder. Her head turned slightly in acknowledgement but her gaze remained focused outside as the sun set in brilliant gold across the landscape of the Labyrinth.

"It's beautiful," she said in a conversational tone. "I never really take the time to appreciate what we have here, but it is really quite beautiful."

He watched her, behind her and slightly to the right. He reached out and brushed her hair back behind her ear softly. "Yes," he replied. "Quite beautiful."

She turned her torso to him, looking up at him with a curious look in her eyes.

"Close your eyes," he said in hushed tones, not wanting to spoil the closeness of the moment.

She frowned for a moment but complied, turning back to face forward again as his hands landed on her shoulders. She felt him brush back her hair as something lightly landed over her collarbones. He kissed the back of her neck before moving away and saying, "Now open them."

She did and circled to face her husband, finding him standing in front of her holding a mirror. She looked at her neck and gasped; from a very fine chain hung a thin silver pendant, a delicate butterfly touching lightly onto a small crystal with a pearly sheen. It was beautiful and precious, and she did not know what to say.

"I'm afraid I had to spin the silver together myself," Jareth said, trying to fill the silence. "And that's a real crystal too, although I'm afraid because it is so small it does not hold much magic, but some at least." After a few moments of more quiet while Sarah stared at the necklace in her reflection he asked, "Do you like it?"

She nodded, apparently captivated by the necklace in her reflection. She wanted to stay mad at him, but he was making it quite difficult.

"I would have liked to have gotten you something dwarf made, but they don't really handle delicate very well," he continued, made uncomfortable by her lack of participation in the conversation.

She considered still being mad at him, just to teach him a lesson, but she was not one to hold a grudge. In her experience it just wasn't worth it. And besides, she wanted to sleep in her own bed again. With her husband curled around her. But still…

"So… am I forgiven?" If his tone was that of a hopeful child, he prayed it did not show too much.

"Hmm," Sarah said. "It's a start." He stared at her and she smiled – a rather evil smile, it dimly registered in his mind – moving away from to take her seat as dinner was being served. He stood there for a moment as Sarah settled down. "Well?" She said after a moment. "Your dinner is going to get cold."

He let out a long sigh and moved to the table. She was not going to forgive him that easily. But at least she was talking to him now. He could work from there. After all, it was a start.

* * *

I seem to have made a lot of weird and wonderful (although the wonderful part is debateable) things in this chapter. I also want to mention that it is sort of based on true events; my dad forgot my mum's birthday this month – or rather, he got which day it landed on wrong and subsequently incurred my mum's wrath. He's bought her a ring (which is a really nice one, by the way – a very thin band with a row of tiny diamonds in the top) but she said if he thinks he's forgiven he's got another thing coming. It sounds like she's joking, but somehow it'll get used against him, I'm sure. 

Originally I wrote a chapter that could have been up the day before yesterday, but I just wasn't happy with it. Sarah forgave him way too easily and didn't have any fire… I hope this works better. As always, let me know what you think.


	5. Christmas With the Williams Family

**Christmas with the Williams Family**

Ordinarily Jareth was not a man who celebrated Christmas. It was a holiday which had grown incredibly popular over the last few decades but Jareth really didn't see all the fuss. He still remembered a time when lumps of coal were not just a threat and children would be lucky if they got one present. Christmas was, he felt, over commercialised and not worth the effort.

His wife did not agree.

Sarah had always loved Christmas. She would start looking forward to it at the end of November, carefully considering what to get her friends and family as presents. It was a magical season, a chance to spend time with her family away from the stresses of daily life.

Sarah's family had offered to have them over for Christmas, but Sarah had been unsure, telling them that she would have to see if she and Jareth were planning on doing anything by themselves.

It had turned out they were not planning on doing anything by themselves. Or at all, it seemed.

"I do not see what all the fuss is about," Jareth said. "It is one day of the year celebrated originally by Christians to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. How it turned into a capitalistic, tackily lighted, gluttonous excuse for a religious holiday that somehow starts in October and doesn't end until January is beyond me."

Sarah stared at him open-mouthed. "Geez, tell me what you really think," she muttered under her breath. Out loud she said, "I had no idea you were such a Grinch."

"A what?" he said, looking confused.

"A Grinch. A Scrooge? Someone who has no holiday cheer whatsoever?" He just frowned in response and she rolled her eyes. "Come on, there has to be something you like about Christmas."

"Why does there? Is there a rule? Do I have to like Christmas or I'll be lynched?" He asked, looking unimpressed.

"Nothing about it? Not even the Christmas dinner?" This could mean she would have to decline her father's offer. If he didn't like the food there would be no point in going, especially if all he would do was sit there and grouch about Christmas, listing the reasons why he hated it so and what he would do to change it if he could.

Jareth frowned. "Turkey is fine. Potatoes are fine, even Brussels sprouts are fine. It's just the sheer quantity in which humans eat it that I find distasteful." He remembered one year when some child had wished away his older brother on Christmas day, right in the middle of dinner. There had been masses of food and everyone had looked all… bloated. It was not pleasant and he had been glad to get away. Just thinking about it made him want to shudder. Being king, though, he suppressed the urge.

"Hmm," Sarah said, thinking. Perhaps they could go, if she could convince Jareth that he wouldn't be forced to eat anymore than he wanted to. "So as long as you don't have to eat more than you want, it would be alright?"

"Why are you asking?" He said, for the first time suspicious. Just what was his wife planning?

"Well," she said, drawing out the word into two syllables, "I was talking to my dad the other day, and he asked if we would like to stay over for Christmas?"

Jareth frowned, not understanding the question. "So? What did you tell him?"

"I said I'd have to see if we were doing anything else first, but if we're not planning on doing anything I thought we could take a few days and visit, maybe…" She looked up at him hopefully.

"And leave the castle? Who would make sure the goblins do not kill themselves out of sheer stupidity?" Jareth asked. He remembered the last time he had left them alone for more than a day. There had been a slight disaster with the troll living in a western part of the Labyrinth and the goblins experimenting with a catapult and some chickens. It had taken weeks to find Plotz, a goblin that had gotten decidedly too close to the troll afterwards.

"Can't you leave someone else in charge for a while? A week at most," Sarah promised. She had not realised just how much she wanted to see her family, even for a short time.

"I suppose I could try Earl, but really, he sleeps most of the time, so it might not be such a good idea," Jareth thought out loud.

Sarah wondered who Earl was, but she did not want to get Jareth sidetracked and said, "Can't you give Earl something that will help him stay awake?"

"I could," he said, in a tone that suggested he would rather not.

"Jareth, please? This would really mean a lot to me," she said, putting a hand on his arm.

He glanced at the arm and then back up at her. "What would?"

"Going to my dad's for Christmas!" she said, exasperated. Was he not paying attention at all?

"You want to go?" She got the feeling he was surprised that she would want to willingly spend more time with her family than she absolutely had to. But maybe that was how he felt about it.

"Yes!" She said, louder than she meant to. He raised one eyebrow at her and she blushed, saying, "Well, that is, if you don't mind."

He groaned and said, "But, Christmas…"

"Tell you what, Jareth," Sarah said, hoping to make a deal. "If you decide after this year you don't want to celebrate Christmas with my family, then we won't go again. We'll just stay here and do whatever you want."

"Whatever I want?" Jareth asked, suddenly grinning.

She sighed and said, "Within reason."

"No no, what's said is said," Jareth said, looking wickedly pleased with this turn of events. "Fine. Tell your father we'll be there – ah, when is Christmas?"

Her eyebrows shot up in disbelief. "The twenty-fifth of December, same as every year."

"No," he said, patiently, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "I mean how far away is it? What day does it fall on?"

"Oh. It's the Tuesday after next," Sarah said.

"Fine. I will make arrangements; in the meantime do not say anything to him until I have made solid plans." He grinned, already planning out next year. Because of course he would hate Christmas with her family; how could anyone not?

AA

Eventually it was arranged that Sarah and Jareth would be staying with the Williams' for ten days, arriving the Sunday before Christmas and leaving late on Tuesday, New Year's Day. Sarah's father had wanted her to stay longer. After all, he didn't get to see her that much now she was living in England, but Sarah said they couldn't stay any longer; Jareth had a company to run, after all. Her father grudgingly agreed, saying that they would have to make the most of those ten days. It had taken a lot to assure her father they did not need picking up from the airport, saying that they would be happier renting a car and driving over. However, where they were staying was non-negotiable; no way would Robert Williams let his little girl stay in a hotel when he had a perfectly good room for her and her husband to stay in at his house.

Sarah relayed the information to Jareth, who had smirked, feeling quite happy in the knowledge that he had almost certainly won this little bet.

It had turned out that Earl was the old man with the bird on his head (or possibly the bird that was his head; Sarah wasn't sure), and Jareth's way of keeping him awake had been to employ (read: threaten) Hoggle to poke the old man awake every now and again. When Jareth wasn't there Sarah had asked Hoggle to keep an eye on things, just in case. He had agreed, but only for her, not for _him_.

Things were certainly going to be interesting, Sarah thought. She smiled to herself, and set about packing for her visit to her family.

AA

It was a busy time of the year for Bob's Rental Cars ('In Bob We Trust'), but then, Christmas was a time when everyone wanted to be getting home to their families. Based in the airport, Bob's Rental Cars boasted over a hundred strong fleet at fair prices either booked or last minute deals. Bob's motto was that if you were not entirely satisfied with his cars then he would guarantee one hundred per cent of your money back. Which was why Bob had nearly gone bankrupt and had to sell his business. The new owners had decided to keep the name but lose the motto. Still, Bob's Rental Cars was generally reliable, and if they did not have a car you could rent then it was unlikely you would find one anywhere else.

It was after seven on Sunday night and the girl on the desk was considering closing early. She was being paid time and a half to be here though, and if her boss found out she'd closed before eight he would not be impressed. "We are not just renting cars," he had told her when she was being trained. "We are enabling people to travel to their loved ones. We are making a difference. So smile, wear the uniform and for god's sake stop chewing that gum." The only reason why she was working there was to earn a little extra cash before she headed off to college next year. After that it was so long Bob's Rental Cars and hello clubs and college boys.

The girl was settling down to read a book (entitled, _She Went All the Way_by Meggin Cabot) and pass the forty minutes or so before she could lock up and leave. She was not expecting anyone to come in now, which was why she was surprised when a couple entered, the man saying, "But Sarah, really, how difficult can it be?"

"No," the woman, Sarah, said sternly. "And that's the end of it."

The man was frowning, but took the two bags that were passed to him by his wife. She shook her head and walked over to the desk.

"Hello," she said. If the cheeriness in her voice seemed forced, it was nothing compared to her fixed smile. "I'd like to rent a car please."

"Um," the girl said, feeling the man's eyes boring into her skull, "do you have a booking at all?"

"I'm afraid not," the woman replied.

"Well, we don't really have anything available at the moment," the girl said. "What with it being, you know. Christmas, and all."

The woman's fixed smile dropped and she leaned into the girl, speaking low and quietly. "Look," she glanced down at the girl's name tag (HELLO! MY NAME IS Marie), "Marie, please. Do you have anything? Anything at all?"

Marie looked the woman in the eye and risked a glance at the man with her. Yep; still glaring at her. "Well," Marie said, considering it, "there is one…"

"Great!" the woman exclaimed, looking relieved.

"The thing is," Marie said quickly, "it's only just been bought, second hand, and it hasn't got its safety certificate yet, and Chris, my boss, said that if anything were to go wrong with it while someone were driving it we could get sued for lots of money so I'm not supposed to rent it out to anyone yet, even though technically it's on the books-"

"Marie, right now, I don't care. I just need to get my husband out of this airport and to my house, I mean, my family's house, as quickly as possible. I promise you, I will not sue, I'll sign a waver, anything, just rent me the car, please!"

Marie's eyes widened and she said, "Well, I guess…"

"Thank you!" The woman exclaimed. "Really, thank you."

"You understand it will be uninsured," Marie pointed out, not wanting this decision to bite her in the ass later. "And that if you have any problems with the car we cannot be held responsible for any costs it might incur-"

"Yep, don't come crying to you if the car explodes, got it. Please, can we just get to the renting it to me part?" The woman said, after glancing at her husband over her shoulder and apparently not liking what she was seeing. "Before my husband over there does anything rash?"

"Oh… kay," Marie replied, fetching out the rental forms from a drawer. "I'll need to see the full driver's licence of the designated driver, for starters." She glanced over at the man, who was still glaring in her direction. "I presume that would be you, ma'am?"

"Oh yes, most definitely," Sarah replied, fishing out her wallet.

It took a while to fill out all the appropriate forms, but eventually everything was signed and sealed, and Sarah was handed the keys.

"Our garages are on level two of the multi-storey car park by departures," Marie informed the woman, "and if you have any problems, our number is on the key-ring here and on the forms here." She smiled at Sarah, the way she was told to, and said, "Have a safe trip!"

"Thank you," Sarah said gratefully, smiling briefly before turning to her husband. "Come on, let's go."

"Finally," he said, leaping up from the chairs on the side and grabbing the bags. "I don't see why we have to have a car," Marie heard him grumble. "We could just be there in a matter of moments."

"I told you, my dad is expecting us to arrive in a car," Sarah replied, picking up a bag and hauling it over her shoulder.

"Surely he would expect me to drive," the man said. "Being the husband and provider and all that."

"You can't drive!" Sarah hissed, glancing at Marie who was doing her best to look as though she couldn't hear them while making as little noise as possible so that she could. "How many more times?"

"If you can do it I'm sure I would be more than capable," he muttered as they moved to the door.

"Sweetie, I love you, but there is no way I'm going to let you drive. Now drop it!" Sarah said, opening the door and motioning him to go before her. The man stomped out and Sarah threw one last long-suffering but polite smile to Marie and followed her husband, letting the door shut behind her.

Marie privately wondered how long it would be before the woman threw the man out of the car on their way to their destination. She hoped she would be there when they dropped the keys off.

AA

Sarah and Jareth arrived at the Williams house at about half eight looking tired and grumpy. Her father came out and warmly welcomed Sarah, enveloping her in a hug and asking how her trip was. He nodded towards Jareth, briefly acknowledging the man before taking his daughter inside. Jareth glared after them and moved to the trunk, taking out their bags and lugging them towards the door.

He stopped halfway up the drive as he noticed the decorations adorning the house. There were bright, garish Christmas lights everywhere, including several snowmen, a couple of reindeer, and for some reason, a moose, not to mention the jolly fat man himself. He shuddered, suppressing the urge to blow them all up. Not the real Father Christmas, of course. Nick could be irritating sometimes but not enough to obliterate him. Still, Sarah had challenged him, so he was determined to see this through. After all, how bad could it be inside? He grimaced, not really wanting that question answered, but squared his shoulders anyway and entered.

To be fair, it was not all that bad indoors. There was more tinsel than Jareth would have liked, but the tree in the hall was not an unreasonable size and the garlands were more tasteful than the array of eyesores outside. Although that was not saying much; pink shell-suits coupled with heavy gold jewellery and an orange tan were more tasteful than the lights outside. Still, it was not too awful, and Jareth would be able to put up with it for ten days.

"Jareth?" He heard his wife call. He moved towards the stairs and saw her standing at the top. She smiled when she saw him and asked, "Is that all of the bags?"

"Yes. I'm fine with them, by the way," he added, shrugging one of the shoulder straps back onto his shoulder awkwardly as he held four other bags in his hands.

"Oh sorry, sweetheart," Sarah said, rushing down the stairs. She took a couple of the bags off him and started back up the stairs. "Come on, this way."

He followed her up the stairs and they went into a room on the left. He recognised it as Sarah's room, although it didn't look the same as he remembered it. It had been gutted and replaced with pine furniture and a double bed, decorated in neutral creams. It was very stylish, and very impersonal, but that did not matter. It was a room for just Sarah and himself for the next ten days and he intended to make the most of it.

It seemed as though her family has other plans, however. "Sarah!" A small blond child charged into the room and collided with Sarah, wrapping its arms about her waist and causing her to drop the bags she was carrying.

"Hey squirt!" Sarah said, hugging the child back. Jareth put down the bags he was carrying and watched Sarah's little brother attempt to squeeze the life out of her. When he eventually let go he started to ask, "Where's-" but then spotted Jareth and similarly assaulted him.

"Hello Toby," Jareth said, patting the boy on the head. Toby had always liked him, a fact for which Jareth was grateful, especially considering her father's attitude towards him. Toby let go and stared up at him.

"Hey Jareth," he said with a grin. Then he turned back to his sister and said, "I just wanted to say hi, but mom said I should leave you to get settled in, but she said to tell you dinner will be in half an hour, too, and she said she'll be up in a minute to see if you need anything." Having fulfilled his duty, he ran out the room again, only to be heard crashing about elsewhere in the house.

"He's getting big," Sarah said, looking towards the door.

"Indeed," Jareth said. "How old is he now?"

"Six," Sarah replied with a sigh. "He's growing too quick."

Jareth moved towards her and hugged her from behind. She sighed and snuggled into him. "I find children do tend to grow a lot in a short period of time," Jareth said into her neck. She let out a short laugh and then turned to face him, still in his arms.

"I guess we had better get unpacked," she said, looking around.

"I suppose," Jareth agreed, leaning down to kiss his wife gently.

AA

It was Christmas Eve, and the family was sat around the TV watching a Christmas movie with the lights down low and eating popcorn. Sarah had her head lying on Jareth's chest, a fact that had not gone unnoticed by Robert but one that he could do nothing about. He resolved not to think about it and look at them and just enjoy the movie. Karen was quite happily watching it on the sofa next to him and Toby sat on the floor, apparently entertained.

In fact, the only person who was not enjoying the film was Jareth. He was bored out of his skull, and the fact that he had Sarah in his arms (which was annoying her father quite amusingly) did not help as much as he would have liked. For one thing, the film was all wrong. Flying reindeer? Preposterous! He knew for a fact reindeer were not very aerodynamic at all. He and Nick had tested it once and boy, had that been a mess. There was also the look of Santa Claus. Where had all this red come from? The Nick he knew preferred a less noticeable dark green, and as for the beard…

Jareth spent the rest of the film looking for any strays from reality, trying to keep himself amused. When it was over he held in the 'Thank God!' he wanted to cry for Toby's sake.

Karen stretched and got up saying, "Well, I'm turning in. I need to be up at half past six in the morning to start the turkey!" She looked at Toby sternly. "And you young man, should get to bed too."

"Aw, mommy," Toby said, turning the full beam of what Sarah liked to call his 'puppy-dog eyes' on his mother. "Can I stay up just a little bit longer? Please?"

Karen looked at Robert who shrugged. "Well, ten more minutes," Karen said with a sigh. "Then it's bedtime, okay?" She looked at Sarah and Jareth as she said it, silently asking them to make sure Toby got to bed on time.

"Okay," Toby grumbled, turning back to the TV and flicking through the channels.

Karen shook her head and started upstairs, Robert following close behind her, talking quietly about getting Toby's present in from the garage.

"That film," Jareth said quietly to Sarah, "was the biggest piece of propaganda I've seen in a long time. Are all Christmas movies like that?"

Sarah giggled and said, "Propaganda? I wouldn't go that far."

Jareth sighed and said, "It is all a ploy to make people feel good about themselves-"

"Oh, well, we wouldn't want that," Sarah said with a grin.

"That is not exactly what I meant," Jareth started to say.

"Sure," Sarah said, interrupting. "You mean that you're just a Grinch who doesn't believe in Christmas, or Santa Claus, or doing something nice for someone else out of the kindness of your heart…" She trailed off, seeing Toby stare at her. Quickly she thought over what she had said and backtracked. "I'm joking of course. Because Santa does exist, everyone knows that, and-"

"It's okay," Toby said with a shrug. "I know Santa isn't real."

"Who told you that?" Jareth asked curiously as Sarah tried to think of an argument.

"Chris Sparrow."

"And who is Chris Sparrow?"

"A boy at school," Toby said with another shrug.

"Well, I can tell you Chris Sparrow is wrong," Jareth said.

Toby glanced up at him. "He is?"

"Would I lie to you, Toby?" Jareth said calmly.

"No," Toby said hesitantly. "So, Santa's real? He really exists?"

"Santa is as real as I am," Jareth replied confidently. This caused Sarah to stare at him with an odd look on her face.

"Oh," Toby said. Then he brightened. "Okay!" With that he charged out of the room to no doubt cause mayhem somewhere else.

"Jareth?" Sarah said after a moment.

"Hmm?" He didn't turn to look at her, just settled back on the sofa and closed his eyes. He felt her scoot over to him.

"You know what you just told Toby? That Santa is as real as you are?"

"Yes?"

"Well, you're the Goblin King, and well… Is that true?" Jareth opened his eyes and looked at his wife, who looked as though she hardly dared to believe what she was saying.

He smirked and closed his eyes again, letting his head fall on the back of the sofa. "What do you think, Sarah?"

"I think that you could have just said that to make Toby feel better. I think that you can lie very easily sometimes when it suits you, but I don't think you would lie to me. Which is why I'm asking you." He opened his eyes again to see her very serious face above him.

He cupped her cheek in his right hand and said, "Dearest Sarah, I would not lie to you. I may not be completely forth coming with the truth sometimes," he said with a smirk, "but I would not lie." He reached up and kissed her cheek and then let her go, settling back and closing his eyes again. "I will introduce you at some point, if you want to meet him. Though I should warn you, he is not exactly as you will have pictured him."

"So he is real?" He could hear the delighted squeal in his wife's voice and smirked.

"Yes darling. As real as the Goblin King."

Sarah squealed again and hugged her husband. "I'm going to get to meet Santa!"

Jareth mentally rolled his eyes and held onto his wife. "Yes dear."

There was the sound of something knocking over in the next room and Sarah shot up. "Toby…" She called in a warning tone. She got up and went into the other room, and minutes later Jareth heard her send Toby to bed. Jareth chuckled and leaned back again, thinking how much Toby reminded him of himself as a child; always making mischief but with one crucial difference – Jareth had never gotten caught.

AA

Sarah woke up to the bedroom door being opened and a child's voice saying, "It's Christmas, it's Christmas! Get up, get up, it's Christmas!"

She looked groggily over to the door where her little brother stood hopping up and down. "Come on Sarah!" Toby said before charging away, leaving the door open.

"Oh, goody," a deep male voice muttered sarcastically behind her. "A wake up call." She rolled over and smiled sleepily at her husband. He was glaring at the clock, saying, "It's only seven! Can't we go back to sleep?"

Sarah giggled and said, "Oh no, we have to get up or Toby will be in here every five minutes demanding that we get up, eventually jumping on us and dragging us out until we get the point." Jareth raised one brow at her and she explained, "I tried it last year."

Jareth groaned and pulled the covers over him and Sarah, pulling her in close. "Just a few more minutes," he rumbled, breathing her in. Sarah snuggled closer to his warmth, enjoying the feeling of being in his arms, but -

"It's Christmas, you have to get up!" A weight dropped on them in the bed. "Come on, get up!"

Jareth muttered something darkly and Sarah threw off the covers. "Alright, Toby, look, we're getting up, okay?"

"Yay!" Toby said, running away and down the hallway again.

"Bugger this for a laugh," Jareth muttered, and then Sarah felt a strange rocking motion, almost as though they were in a boat at sea. After a moment it settled and she blinked, wondering what had happened.

"Jareth?"

"It's ten minutes ago. Now please can we settle down and sleep a little more?" The reply was grouchy, and he was pulling her back towards him again. She chuckled and let herself be tugged down.

"I'd forgotten you could do that," she whispered, settling herself into his arms.

"I do not make a habit of it," he said, kissing her forehead. "Now please, quiet so I can sleep."

All was calm again and Sarah sighed, happily being held by the person she loved and snuggled up warm and cosy.

For about five minutes.

"It's Christmas, it's Christmas! Get up, get up, it's Christmas!"

"I'm going to gag that boy," Jareth threatened.

Sarah laughed lightly and said, "Okay, Toby, we're getting up."

"Yay!" The boy shouted, running down the hallway.

Sarah stretched as she got out of bed, moving to the door and closing it. "Come on, Goblin King. The world awaits."

Jareth groaned, standing. "Fine. I'm up. Unfortunately," he muttered to himself.

AA

One of the good things about being married was that his wife worried about all the presents to give to her family. He never had to even think of it, besides agreeing with her when she said such-and-such a thing would be good for so-and-so. Everything was given accompanied by the words, 'from us,' and were addressed as, 'From Sarah and Jareth.' This meant that he got partial credit for things Sarah knew her family would love with none of the worries. Of course, her parents employed the same technique, but that was quite alright with him. As long as he didn't have to worry whether someone would prefer bath products or chocolate he was happy.

The whole affair lasted longer than Jareth would have liked, with various people exclaiming about how much they loved the completely pointless larva lamp, or that they simply adored the gift set from The Body Shop they would never use. Only Toby truly said what he felt, which was that he already had one of the DVDs, the bubble bath made him sneeze and that the bike was 'cool.' Everything else, presumably, passed the test.

Finally,_finally_, they sat down for dinner. Karen had spent the entire morning nipping back and forth between the living room and the kitchen, occasionally shouting to Robert for help, and once shouting at Robert for not helping. Now though it was laid before them, and Jareth was relieved to see that there was not nearly as much food on the plate as there had been with that fat child's family. There were some things on the plates before him that he did not recognise, so more often than not he followed his wife's example, trusting her to not have anything he would not like. He only strayed the once with some roast parsnips, which he knew he liked. Or at least, did not dislike.

He found himself making small talk with Karen, Sarah's step-mother. The woman, when she was not yelling at her husband for wandering off when she needed his help transferring the turkey to a new pan, was not bad, he decided. One just had to know how to handle a woman like her.

"How is your company doing, Jareth?" She asked.

"Oh fairly well, thank you. Although I do not like to be away for such a long time. A lot can change in just a short period," he said. He had checked the night before in a crystal to see what state his castle was in, and was pleased to see that there was nothing irrevocably wrong. Yet. Even Hogwash had not abandoned his post, as Jareth thought he would. _Yet_.

"Really?" Karen asked, taking a sip of wine. "I'm surprised Sarah could tear you away, then."

"It was important to Sarah to spend Christmas with her family this year," Jareth said, "so I made arrangements and came with her. I would have hated for her to come all the way here on her own." Which was true. This year, anyway. If she insisted on coming next year, he might tell her that he had to stay in order to look after the Labyrinth, and tell her to tell her family he had to work.

"Aw," Karen said, smiling at her step-daughter, who was oblivious and deep in conversation with Toby. "She's lucky to have you. There was a time when I worried she wasn't going to find anybody, what with always having her nose buried in a book and her head in the clouds. She was constantly going to the park and play-acting whatever book she was reading," she said with a sigh. "But you," she continued, patting Jareth's hand, "you've really bought a change in her, I noticed when she first met you. I think you're the best thing that could have happened to her, Jareth."

"Thank you," he said modestly with a smirk. He suspected the wine was affecting Karen, but not overly. Perhaps it would be best if she did not have another glass, though.

"Jareth." He turned to see his wife looking at him expectantly.

"Sorry dear, did you say something?" He asked.

She smiled and said, "I said, would you like some more yams?"

Jareth was not entirely sure what yams were, and said, "No thank you, dear."

"Okay. Have you had enough?" She asked, seeing that his plate was empty.

"Yes, quite enough," he replied. Ah, he thought privately, the double entendre of that statement. He would be quite glad when it was the New Year and he could go home.

Before long everybody proclaimed that they were full and the table was cleared. Jareth wondered what happened now.

"Go sit down," Sarah said, kissing him on the temple. "Play with Toby or something."

"Perhaps I will exact my revenge on him for that blasted video game yesterday," Jareth agreed, causing his wife to roll her eyes.

"Yes dear," was all she said, leaving him to it while she helped her father to wash up.

AA

Robert was, essentially, a good man. He had always followed the rules, had never broken the law and always did the Right Thing. He tried to be a good father and provide for his small family, teaching his children right from wrong and helping them learn how to defend themselves and survive in this crazy world, giving them love and support.

Sometimes it was harder to support his daughter than others.

It was not that he didn't like Jareth; the man was charming, and clearly loved his daughter nearly as much as he did. Robert just didn't trust him. From the moment he met the British guy, something had been off. There was something about Jareth that Robert knew he didn't know. At first it had not bothered him all that much; after all, he had only just started seeing his daughter, so there was time for him to come clean about whatever it was. Then they had announced they were getting married, and Robert got more worried. Ordinarily he would have pulled the young man in question aside and told him that if he expected to marry his little girl, he would have to be honest with her. However Jareth was rather… intimidating. He had an easy confidence about him that made Robert doubt himself, but he just couldn't shake the feeling that he did not know everything he should know about the man who had married his daughter.

Robert also resented Jareth for taking Sarah far away from him. Sarah had moved to England to be with him, and Robert had not seen her since. She kept in touch, of course, phoning him at least once a week, but it wasn't the same as seeing her, being able to hug her, knowing that when she said she was fine she meant it from the look in her eyes…

All in all, Jareth was not Robert's favourite person. He had tried to like him, for Sarah's sake, but there was only so much a father could do.

Sarah had agreed to come over for Christmas, leaving him overjoyed, but of course she had to bring her husband with her. So while Sarah was helping him wash up and Jareth was distracted with Toby (or rather, trying to beat Toby at a computer game, which Robert had learned long ago was near impossible) he tried speaking to his daughter again about her husband. It had started out innocently enough, when Robert commented on Jareth's seeming lack of Christmas cheer.

"Dad," Sarah said, drying off a plate. "Jareth doesn't really like Christmas all that much."

"Doesn't… doesn't like Christmas?" Robert said. "Now that isn't right. What kind of person doesn't like Christmas?"

"Well, he's, um, British. They don't really go in for it all as much as we do." She nervously tucked her hair behind her ear before taking another plate off the drying rack.

"Oh? Does that mean you have no decorations up at all in your house?" Robert asked, only half joking.

Sarah thought about the castle and its lack of anything Christmas-y. Deciding not to give her father more ammunition, she said, "Dad, don't be silly."

"I'm not, I'm not," he said easily, as he scrubbed at a roasting pan. "But still… Sarah, why did you marry him?"

Sarah looked heavenward as they started this conversation again. "Dad…"

"I'm serious! You could've married anyone; god knows there've been a few men who would have happily taken you down the aisle. Take Gregory Sherman, for example-"

"Gregory Sherman!" She looked at him, openly appalled.

"What's wrong with Gregory Sherman?" He asked defensively. "He's a nice young man with his head screwed on right and he has a good job – what does Jareth do, anyway?"

"I told you, he runs his own Company."

"Right, a company," Robert said, furiously scrubbing at the pan. "You see, he says that, honey, but what's the bet that this company of his is him and one other guy? Or that he doesn't even run it? I mean, he hardly seems responsible enough to run a company, does he?" Finally getting that stubborn bit of potato off he wiped the pan with the sponge and handed it to Sarah.

Sarah took the pan and started drying it with the kitchen towel, saying, "Dad, please. Jareth is very good at what he does and he provides for me."

"That's another thing; when is he going to provide you with children?" He looked her in the eye saying this, having finished all the washing up.

"Dad!" She looked scandalised, blushing brightly.

"And me with grandchildren?" Robert continued, as though he hadn't heard her. "He's not, you know. Sterile or something, is he?"

"Oh dad, of course he isn't!" She said, shaking her head and opening a drawer to put the pan away.

"But how do you know?" He pressed.

"We're not ready for children yet." Robert noticed that she avoided the issue. Did the fact that she was avoiding it mean something? He would have to ask Karen. "We haven't even talked about children yet," Sarah said, turning around and leaning against the counter to face him. "We've only been married five months!"

"So? When I married your mother she got pregnant after two."

"Yeah, and look how well that turned out," Sarah muttered, too quietly for her father to hear.

"And when I married Karen she was already pregnant-"

"Don't let Toby hear you say that," Sarah warned.

"I'm just saying it's the next natural step. And that you need to think about it, sweetie." Robert moved over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "I'm just worried about you, that's all. I mean, whenever you phone you always ask me how we are and how things are going here, and you never talk about yourself. When I ask you say the bare minimum and change the subject!" He looked at her with concerned eyes. "Sarah, you know you can tell me anything. I love you, and I just want what's best for you."

"Oh, dad," Sarah grumbled, pulling him into a hug. "Of course I know that, and I love you too." She pulled away again and looked him squarely in the eye. "I'm married now, and I love Jareth very much. I have my own life to lead, and while I appreciate the concern, it's really not necessary. I would tell you if there was anything wrong. Okay?"

Robert looked at his daughter, trying to reason with him. He didn't like it, not one bit, but it was not as though he had much choice. "Alright, alright, you win. Like always. Just remember that I'm always here, and should you need me…"

"I'll call," Sarah finished, smiling fondly.

"Blast!" They heard from the living room followed by Toby's delighted laughter.

Sarah rolled her eyes. "I better go make sure Toby doesn't rub it in too much; Jareth is a bit of a sore loser." She smiled and walked out of the kitchen while her father watched her leave him for the man she loved.

AA

Sarah watched her husband sulking for a moment before challenging Toby once again this time best of five. She shook her head and went upstairs, checking to see how her step-mother was coping with the headache she had developed. Too much wine, Sarah thought.

Toby and Jareth would be fine for a while, although she hoped either Toby would not gloat over his next victory or that Jareth would be able to restrain himself.

It turned out that she should have been worried about a different scenario.

AA

Jareth glared at the boy who was winning the game so easily. He was six, dammit, six! Jareth should have been able to defeat him with little hassle. So how was it that he was losing? And who invented such a stupid way of controlling a car anyway? It was a pathetic hand held device which in no way corresponded to the real-life controls of a vehicle. Although it probably would not be the smartest idea in the world to allow a child, especially one such as Toby, to learn how to use something that was similar to that of a real car. The child would more than likely think that he could therefore drive a real car and try it.

As Jareth was mentally leading a tirade against computer games, several things happened at once. Toby crossed the finishing line, causing him to jump up with glee; Robert stepped out of the kitchen to see how 'the boys' were doing; and a goblin appeared in the middle of the carpet in front of Jareth.

Jareth's eyes widened but before he could react, he heard Toby's sharp intake of breath. The goblin, completely oblivious to anyone else, rushed to the king, saying, "Your majesty, your majesty!"

Toby turned his wide eyes and gaping mouth towards Jareth. "You're a king?" He asked in awe, not understanding what was going on but picking up on the important factors.

Jareth started to reply, though what he would have said he did not know, when Robert said, entering the room, "How's the game go- what the hell is that!"

Jareth turned quickly to see Robert staring at the goblin. He did not know whether to be amused at Robert's expression or worried. Not that he worried about what Robert or Toby would say, but more about what his wife would say. She had not wanted to tell her family the truth about who Jareth was and where they were really living, as she felt they would not understand. Jareth had agreed, but it seemed now that there would be no other choice, especially as the goblin was now tugging on Jareth's sleeve saying, "Your majesty, there's-"

"Quiet!" Jareth ordered sharply. The goblin immediately obliged, shrinking back a little and noticing for the first time all the strange people around him.

Jareth looked carefully at Robert, who seemed frozen in place, staring at the goblin. Slowly Jareth stood, making no sudden movement. He watched Toby out of the corner of his eye, who looked as though he was itching to get closer to the goblin but held himself back because of the tense atmosphere. Or possibly because he was worried that if he did it would try to eat him.

"Dad, Karen's going to stay lying down for a while, so-" she stopped once she had fully entered the room and saw what everyone was staring at. For a moment she was silent before summing up Jareth's feelings on the situation entirely with one word.

"Crap."

* * *

Oh my god, that was long and it's already twenty past three in the morning here. I'm sorry it's later than I said it would be, but to be fair, there's over seven thousand words there when I was only expecting to write about two thousand. 

So, this is _Married Life_'s contribution to Christmas. Don't expect something equally as long next year… There may or may not be an omake (Japanese, for those who don't know, meaning in this case extra or bonus) about Hoggle and Earl coping with responsibility. It depends on whether I have enough time. If I do, it'll be up in the next couple of days. If not, the next proper chapter will be New Year's Day (hopefully), picking up where this leaves off. In other news, I should have a new chapter of _Another New Year_ out at New Year, possibly two if I manage to write it all. Two because I feel guilty about not posting one last year, but that's a different story.

Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed, and as always, let me know what you think. If you don't, how will I get better?


	6. Resolutions

**Resolutions**

The street where the Williams house could be found was a street like any other on Christmas day. Outside was fairly quiet, cold but not snowing… in fact, it was much like any other day that week, with a few exceptions. For one thing, instead of the driveways being empty with their owners away at work, nearly every single car was parked where it should have been, sometimes with one or two to spare. For another, the people were mostly inside, spending time with their loved ones; laughing, joking, shouting, crying – all the normal things people do at Christmas. In the Williams house, however, there was silence. And not because the occupants were mad at each other.

In the middle of the carpet, now very uneasy and worried that he would soon end up taking a permanent vacation to the Bog of Eternal Stench, was Volbe, a goblin. Volbe was not stupid, despite the general opinion on goblins. Volbe was simple. As far as Volbe had been concerned, His Majesty and Her Majesty had gone away, and he had missed His Majesty very much, so he decided to go where His Majesty was and ask (read: beg) His Majesty to come back. After all, what if His Majesty forgot about him and the other goblins? What if they had done something to upset His Majesty to make him leave? Volbe could not live with himself if he thought his king did not love them anymore, so he had _had_ to go. Hadn't he?

Volbe was starting to regret this decision. He had appeared where His Majesty was, wearing strange garments but his king nonetheless, and started to appeal to him. He tried to tell him that the strange man with the bird on his head and the dwarf man were in the throne room, bossing them around, and that they missed His Majesty and wanted him to come home, but His Majesty had ordered him to be quiet before he got to say anything. And now there was the staring…

A big male human was staring at him with his mouth slightly agape and eyebrows high while a little male human was fidgeting the way little male humans do, also staring. Only Her Majesty was not looking at him, having collapsed onto a seat when she saw him and had then started to rub the bridge of her nose. His Majesty had been glaring at him, but thankfully his gaze had shifted to Her Majesty instead, though Volbe was not the most experienced goblin in reading people and therefore could not tell what His Majesty was thinking. Volbe just hoped that His Majesty was not thinking up new ways to punish those who annoyed him.

Robert, meanwhile, found himself staring at the strange creature cowering in the middle of his carpet. It was small, scaly and dirty, causing a part of his mind to want to go find out the carpet cleaner. Karen had insisted on a nicer, more expensive carpet for the living room and Robert was not going to let some weird little thing mess it up and make him have to buy a new one.

Most of his mind was focused on the bigger picture, however, and trying to process all the information available to him right now. Firstly, it was not a creature he had ever seen before. It was similar in size to a small dog, with mottled green skin and wearing what appeared to be armour, rusting in places and leaving flakes he hoped would be easily vacuumed later. Its head was disproportionately big in comparison to its body with large pointed ears and a big hooked nose. Those facts were not a lot to go on. His mind kept coming up with mythical creatures, but this was the real world, where nightmare beasts did not exist, could not exist.

Sarah did not appear to be surprised by it. Rather, she looked tired and had sat down heavily into the armchair, like a person who had hoped something would not happen, yet it had anyway.

Jareth was glaring at the goblin, who appeared to be afraid of him, nervously looking up at him only to hide its face away when it saw Jareth's face had not changed. And it had called Jareth, 'Your Majesty'…

Robert was not sure what all this meant exactly, but he knew one thing; he had been right about Jareth. The man had been hiding something, and dragged his precious little girl into it too.

Robert broke the silence, causing the creature to jump with a little a squeak, saying, "What is going on?"

Sarah and Jareth looked at each other, before standing and turning to Robert. "Dad, um…" Sarah started, brushing her hair behind her ear, not meeting his eyes. She looked to Jareth for help, but he just shrugged in a most unhelpful way.

"Well?" Robert said, noticing out of the corner of his eye the small thing was trying to edge away without being noticed. "What is that?" He demanded, pointing at it. It froze and looked at him with unnaturally large eyes, giving him the impression of being quite panicked.

Sarah tugged on Jareth's sleeve and rose her eyebrows, silently saying,_do something!_ Just what did she expect him to do? He could send the goblin back, but that would result in more questions from her father that he was not sure he could explain very well. He could try and explain to the man what he truly was, but somehow he did not think he would be able to without upsetting the man.

Toby suddenly jumped up, reaching for the goblin, causing Robert to cry out, "No!" and the goblin to make a break for it. Toby chased after the goblin while Robert tried to grab Toby, lunging after him while Sarah and Jareth stood there.

Sarah watched them with wild eyes, desperately trying to figure out what to do. She looked to her husband, to see if he had any ideas, only to realise he was trying not to laugh. She scowled and hit him on the arm causing his barely suppressed amused gaze to land on her.

"Oh come on," he said, as the goblin, Toby and Robert darted past them. "You don't think it's just a bit funny?"

"No I don't!" She hissed. She cast about for ideas and then said, "This morning! You turned back time – you can do it again, stop this from happening!"

Jareth was shaking his head before she had even finished her sentence. "No, it wouldn't work." The goblin dove behind the sofa against the wall with Toby skidding to a halt not far behind it. "I could turn back time, but it would not change a lot, just make everyone go back to where they were at that time and make them more confused." Toby was now peering behind the sofa, trying to see the goblin while Robert was pulling Toby away, trying to prevent him from seeing it.

"Why?" Sarah asked, frustrated.

"The memories of what happened won't go away just by turning back time," Jareth said, wishing just once his wife would accept what he said without needing to know why all the time. By the sofa Toby was complaining that the goblin had disappeared. "Usually people just take it to be déjà vu and they don't think about it too much, but with something like this," he said, gesturing to where Robert had successfully pried Toby away (only because Toby could no longer see the goblin) and was investigating the back of the sofa himself, "they won't just ignore it."

Sarah huffed and looked over at her father, biting her lip. "Suggestions?"

"Tell them the truth?" Jareth said. Her head snapped back to him with a panicked expression, but Jareth continued, "I do not see that we have much else choice, love. Do you?"

She scowled again before sighing. "No, I guess not." She groaned and buried her face in his chest. "This is going to be awful," her muffled voice said.

He chuckled in response and said, "Do not worry, dearest Sarah. I am here, we will do this together."

She hugged him and he stroked her head soothingly. He looked up and saw Robert's eyes were now fixed on them both, having given up the hunt for the goblin. His eyes narrowed as they met the Goblin King's, and Jareth sighed, pushing his wife away gently, preparing himself for the moment Sarah had been dreading.

"You," Robert started.

"Dad," Sarah moved towards him, holding her hands up in the universal gesture for peace, but Robert pulled her aside behind him protectively.

"That – that thing – it knew you," Robert said, pointing an accusing finger towards the Goblin King. Jareth did not respond, merely folding his arms and met Robert's eyes with a steady gaze. Robert frowned the frown of a man fearing what he did not understand, one who may act rashly because of that fear. "What's going on?" Robert asked hoarsely, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Dad," Sarah said again, moving around in front of him, between him and Jareth. "Come on, come and sit down," she said gently, laying a hand on his arm and pulling him towards the sofa. She looked over at Toby, who was moving his search for the elusive goblin upstairs. Perhaps it would be best if she explained this without Toby present.

Jareth watched them move imperiously, arms still folded. Robert's eyes were flicking between his daughter and her husband, trying to figure out what was happening. Jareth did not think he would ever guess the truth. The side of his mouth twitched into a smirk and he sat next to his wife, his eyebrows low and heavy as he put an arm around Sarah, and met her father's stare.

Sarah drew a deep breath, taking comfort from Jareth. This was not going to be easy, but at least he was here to help her. Even if he said nothing he was there, gently holding her. "Okay, where to start?" Sarah mused. Robert's face was stern and expectant. She took another deep breath and said, "Okay, well… Dad, you remember when I was a teenager, and all I read were those fantasy books all the time?"

He nodded, looking between Sarah and Jareth.

"And how I always went to the park to act them out, constantly being late and being, well, a bit of a brat?" Robert looked as though he was about to object, but chose instead to just nod. "And then one night," Sarah continued, "I just changed; got rid of all my costumes and books, grew up…" Robert nodded again, wondering where this was going, and Sarah said, "Well there was a reason, Dad.

"There's a book called _The Labyrinth_; mom got it me, remember? Anyway, it's about a princess who has to rescue her brother from the goblins and their king, through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered…" Jareth frowned at the line but did not say anything. It was all past now.

"I don't see what that has to do with anything," Robert said, looking unimpressed.

"The thing is," Sarah said, nervously licking her suddenly dry lips, "the thing is… I was a brat, okay, and I was annoyed that you'd left me at home to look after the baby again without even asking me, and Toby just wouldn't stop crying so I started telling him the story…" She slowed down after the rush of words and continued, "And I said the words, the same words, more or less, that the princess used to wish her brother away, and, well… it worked." Robert raised his eyebrows at her and she said, "It worked, the goblins came and took Toby from me, at my request. I never thought it would work, though, if I'd have realised my wish was going to come true I wouldn't have said it." She paused and frowned at the floor, saying, "Although if I hadn't I wouldn't be where I am today, so I suppose everything worked out for the best." She looked back up at her father. "The king of the goblins came to me, offered me my dreams… All I had to do was forget about Toby. But I couldn't, I mean, how could I? So the king challenged me; if I could solve his Labyrinth within thirteen hours I could have Toby back." She shrugged and said, "So I did it. I made my way through, I made friends who helped me, and I won Toby back. I learnt a lot there, and I came back a wiser person."

"Assuming this is true… I still don't see why you're telling me this," Robert said, looking between his daughter and her husband.

"Well, you remember I mentioned the Goblin King?" Sarah said tentatively. At Robert's nod she continued, "Well, I've never really properly introduced you…" She looked at Jareth and took another deep breath before turning back to her father. "Dad, this is Jareth, the Goblin King."

To say Robert was sceptical did not cover his emotions fully at that moment. "The Goblin King?" He said, raising his eyebrows.

"Yep," Sarah said, watching him carefully.

"So I suppose that thing earlier was a goblin then?" Robert said in a disbelieving tone.

"Pretty much," Sarah said. It was hard to tell what her father was thinking from his expression.

"I don't suppose I have to tell you that it all sounds a little… farfetched," he said. It was one thing to have some peculiar creature hiding behind his sofa; it was another to believe that it was a goblin of which his daughter's husband was the reigning monarch.

"I know, dad, I know," Sarah said, reaching forward to take his hand. "But it's true."

He looked at his daughter's earnest expression, and Jareth's cold, blank stare, and said slowly, "So… you're saying that you married the man who kidnapped your younger brother…?" He wasn't sure he liked this deduction.

"No," Sarah said quickly, "Of course not, Jareth didn't kidnap him, Dad, I made a stupid wish, saying something I didn't mean, and Jareth just did as I asked, so-"

Robert stood up suddenly, holding out a hand to silence his daughter. "This is ridiculous! I'm supposed to believe that he-" he pointed to Jareth, who had also risen from his seat "-is some fairytale king of some horrible creatures who stole your brother when he was a baby and now you're married to him!"

Very calmly, Jareth raised one hand slowly before him, bringing his fingers together pointing upwards. On the tip, light rushed in to form a bubble, delicate and shimmering. Robert's eyes widened as he stumbled back, staring at the man before him.

Robert had always been a practical man. He did not believe in things he could not see with his own two eyes. Sure, there were things he was unable to explain, but he knew that somewhere out there, there was a scientific explanation. It could be said that Robert was a man of science. So when a man he had known for roughly a year, a man who was married to his only daughter, formed something out of thin air with no scientific explanation as to how so far as he could see, it upset him somewhat. "How…" he said, staring at the round object now resting in Jareth's hand. "How…?"

Jareth smirked and rolled the crystal around on his arms, weaving it between his hands. Mortals could be baffled so easily, he thought to himself. Sarah glared at him and hit him, causing the crystal to fall and shatter. He scowled and called it back up into his hand, the tiny pieces seeming to meld back together perfectly forming the smooth crystal once more.

Sarah looked over at her father, who seemed to be having a cognitive breakdown, and said gently, "Dad?" When he did not respond, she said more forcefully, "Dad." He jerked and looked at her with wide, slightly wild eyes. Sarah sighed. "Do you want a drink?"

He glanced back at Jareth, who was now lacing the crystal around on one hand and, Robert rather suspected, was enjoying torturing him, and said to his daughter. "Scotch. A large one."

AA

Robert was not happy. After two glasses of whiskey and further explanations, he still did not understand, nor did he like it. The magic and fairytale stuff aside, his daughter had basically married the devil. He could not dispute what the man could do. Apparently the creature had been one of his subjects, missing his presence. Robert wanted to talk to Sarah alone, but who knew what that man could do? Besides, he knew Sarah, she was strong-willed. Once she set her mind to something, there was little Robert could do. He mulled it over in his mind, aware that Sarah was watching him worriedly but not caring all that much right then.

Jareth had always gotten along well with Toby, but Robert felt his fatherly instinct kicking in, making him want to take Toby as far away as possible from Jareth. But then Toby would want to know why, and Robert did not feel equipped to tell the young boy that his loving, doting sister had once hated him enough to wish some mythical creatures would take him far away. And then there was Karen… What was he going to say to her? Oh god, he realised, what was he going to say to Karen? She would know he was hiding something. She always knew; it seemed to be a sixth sense women had, especially married ones. She would want to know what was wrong, what was he not telling her. What would he say? How could he possibly begin to explain this to her, when he did not even fully understand it himself? How could Sarah marry him? What had possessed her? Maybe she was possessed… Or perhaps she was under some sort of spell by Jareth…

"Dad," Sarah tried again. "It's okay, really…"

"How is any of this okay?" He asked, looking her in the eye. Her look was troubled as her eyes slid away from his to the floor.

Upstairs there was a thump and Karen could be heard, obviously displeased. Before long she appeared with Toby saying, "Robert, what on earth in Toby doing, snooping under our bed? He says he's looking for a goblin…" She caught her husband's slumped posture as he grappled for an explanation and said, "Robert?"

"That would be my fault," Jareth said easily, moving forward. "Toby and I were playing a game, Hunt the Goblin, I thought it would be fairly quiet, but… sorry."

Karen looked between her husband, step-daughter and step-son-in-law, none of whom were giving much away. "Okay, well, never mind, no harm done. I suppose I'll start making some turkey sandwiches." As she moved past Robert she said quietly, "Dear? Are you alright?"

He looked up at her, worry in his eyes, but it cleared quickly, forced away if she was any judge. "Of course, honey. Want any help with the sandwiches?"

She frowned a little, wondering what was going on. "No, it's fine. You stay, enjoy your drink." She cast one last concerned look at him before kissing him on the cheek and moving away towards the kitchen.

Robert waited until she was out of sight before letting out the breath he had not realised he was holding. He got up wearily and said, "I'm going to the den to think."

Sarah nodded, watching him leave. "Jareth," she said with a sigh. "That was not exactly how I wanted things to turn out."

He wrapped his arms around her, kissing the top of her head. "The worst part is over, love," he promised. He stood there holding her close and breathing her in, knowing that she felt as calmed by him as he was by her. Then he felt the eyes on them. He pried away from Sarah a little and looked over at Toby, who seemed to want to ask something but did not know how to interrupt. "Toby?" He invited. Sarah looked over at her little brother and smiled reassuringly.

"Jareth," Toby said hesitantly. "That thing we were chasing earlier… what was it?"

Jareth looked to Sarah first, who shrugged and nodded tiredly. He kissed her forehead and pulled away, sitting down and motioning to Toby to join him. The boy did, looking up and Jareth with honest curiosity.

"That was a goblin, Toby," Jareth said, not bothering to sugar coat his words.

"Really?" Toby said, grinning with his eyes shinning.

"Really," Jareth told him.

"I thought they were real," Toby said, excited. "Sometimes mommy loses something or something gets moved, and sometimes I see something moving and hiding, but when I look there's nothing there. That's goblins, isn't it?"

"Indeed it is," Jareth confirmed.

Toby's grin changed to a thoughtful frown. "But, that goblin, he said… he called you your majesty…" He jerked his head up and his eyes widened with awe as he looked at Jareth. "Are you their king or something?"

Jareth smirked and said, "Yes. But you must not say anything to your parents. They would not understand. You know what adults are like."

Toby nodded glumly at that last part. "Yeah, every time I saw a goblin before they never believed me. They thought I was making it up," he added with disgust.

"The goblins are fairly mischievous," Jareth said thoughtfully, apparently not noticing Toby's lack of understanding at the word 'mischievous,' "and the best way be to cause trouble is not to be seen."

"Oh," Toby said. "What happened to the goblin that was here then?"

"It went back to my realm, I imagine. They travel back and forth by hiding behind things, going out of sight. But they're always around, between here and there," he said, smiling at the boy's look of wonder. He glanced towards Sarah, who seemed to be relieved that her brother was taking this so well. An idea occurred to Jareth and he told Toby, "That means, if ever you should need me or your sister, you need only find somewhere alone with dark places and speak out, and we will get the message."

"Really?" The boy looked doubtful, but Jareth never lied to him, so it must be true.

"Yes. But that does not mean you should abuse it," Jareth added sternly. "Only in emergencies. Do you understand?"

Toby nodded solemnly. Karen could be heard, calling to Toby to see if he wanted any sandwiches and he got up, rushing off in the direction of the kitchen.

Sarah moved over to her husband and rested her head on his shoulder with a sigh. He wrapped an arm around her and held her close. She snuggled in closer to him, hoping that the rest of the week would pass easier than today. She suspected, however, that things were going to be tough.

AA

"We're going shopping!" Karen called out, dragging a bewildered Sarah behind her.

"What!" Robert said, looking panicked. He hurried to the door where Sarah was attempting to put on her shoes while Toby bounced around in the Spider-Man coat he had gotten for Christmas.

"We're going shopping," Karen repeated, rolling her eyes. "Come on Sarah, hurry up!"

"Okay, okay, I'm done!" Sarah said, pulling on her coat. "Why exactly-"

"We'll see you later then, love!" Karen said, quickly kissing her husband on the cheek and opening the door. "Christmas is over and the sales await!"

Toby ran out of the door, whooping for joy (which would be short-lived when he lived through the boredom of women shopping) while Karen pulled a still slightly baffled Sarah along to the car.

Robert wanted to protest – he was going to be left alone with _him_; the Goblin King. If he did not know any better, he would have said Karen had planned it that way. His eyes narrowed in suspicion as his wife pulled out of the driveway in her car, waving cheerfully to him briefly before setting off.

"Sarah?" Robert turned to see Jareth descending from the last stair looking around.

"They've gone shopping," Robert said, wondering just what the hell he was supposed to do now.

"Ah," Jareth replied, holding onto the banister at the foot of the stairs. There was an awkward moment in which both men tried to figure out what they should do.

"So," Robert said, drawing the word out. "Women, eh? They live for shopping."

"Indeed," Jareth nodded, smiling politely. The silence returned, pressing in uncomfortably.

"Yeah," Robert, said, desperately trying to think his way out of this situation.

Suddenly Jareth clapped his hands together and said, "Bugger this." He strode past Robert towards the living room and called, "Follow me."

Robert hesitated, thinking for a moment to pick a fight over being ordered around, but he remembered who he was dealing with and thought better of it. Besides, if he did not follow he did not know what to do otherwise.

Jareth was waiting for him in the living room, sitting on a sofa with two glasses in his hands, empty for the moment. He held one out to Robert and motioned for him to sit down. Robert took the glass and sat in the armchair to Jareth's right.

"Robert, I have to say, when I am usually faced with a situation I do not like," Jareth said, waving his now free hand and grasping the decanter that appeared there, "I usually take a very simple approach." He poured out a generous measure for himself and offered the decanter towards Robert. Automatically Robert held out his glass, allowing another charitable amount of liquid to be poured. "If it is a goblin I do not like, I throw them in the Bog of Eternal Stench," Jareth continued, setting the decanter down, "if it is a dwarf I do not like I throw them in the Bog of Eternal Stench, in fact, with most of my subjects, whatever the species, the Bog of Eternal Stench will usually suffice." He took a sip, looking thoughtful. Robert sniffed the liquid, but besides the fact that it was very strong, it was not something he recognised.

"With humans, for the most part, I only come into contact with them when they have been particularly aggravating, forcing my hand by wishing the goblins to take whatever person they are displeased with away, expecting me to just put everything right again because they say sorry." Jareth scowled briefly, lost in thought. With one small shake of his head the scowl was gone, and he swirled the contents of his glass around thoughtfully. "A trip through the Labyrinth sorts them out, and for the most part they go away having learnt something useful, or something to that effect. There are not too many mythical beings like myself out there; fewer still that I have contact with and even less think to oppose me." He grinned a little to himself and added, "Not anymore, anyway."

Robert did not like where this was going, but kept quiet. He frowned at the liquid again, taking in its purplish colour.

"The point is," Jareth said, finally looking at him, "I have very little need to make people like me. I have all the allies I need, I have the love of a good woman whom I adore, and I have subjects who will follow my orders whatever they might be. That's not going to poison you, you know," he added, nodding towards the neglected drink.

Robert took a hesitant sip before coughing and quickly setting the glass down as his throat burned. Jareth grinned in response and took a sip of his own. "It is quite strong though," he mused. He waved a hand and a glass of water appeared, which he held out to Robert. Robert looked at it warily, as Jareth said, "It is only water, I swear."

The man took it and drank gratefully, washing away the stinging of the other stuff. "What is that?" He asked when he found his voice.

"It is called Goblin's Toe, thankfully only a name. It is quite potent, as I'm sure you are now aware, and takes many years to get used to enough to drink straight." At this point Jareth held out another bottle to Robert and added at the man's wary gaze, "This will make the drink more bearable for you."

"If you knew I wouldn't be able to drink it straight then why offer it to me like that in the first place?" Robert asked as he allowed Jareth to fill the rest of the glass with this new stuff.

"I did not want to offend you by suggesting that you could not handle anything I could not handle," Jareth replied smoothly.

"You just wanted to see my reaction," Robert accused.

Jareth tipped his head with a smirk and said, "Perhaps. You should find it quite pleasant now."

Robert sniffed the now lavender concoction and took another sip, finding that while it was still very strong, at least this would not make him go blind if he drank too much. "Why tell me all that? About what you do to people you don't like?" Robert asked, getting back to the point.

"Because that is what I would ordinarily do; throw then in the bog or overwhelm them by force. As I said, I do not find much opposition anymore. I find myself in a somewhat unique situation now, however," he said, watching Robert.

"Oh?"

"I have never wanted something from someone that I could not just take," Jareth said thoughtfully, "until I met your daughter."

Robert's eyes narrowed on Jareth.

"She was full of fire and quite adamant that she would not just be taken," Jareth said, smirking at a memory. "I had to earn her love, prove that I loved her and only wanted her love in return with no hidden agenda…" He sighed meeting Robert's eyes honestly. "It was the hardest thing I ever found myself doing. But I meant it, all of it, and it was worth waiting, worth taking the time…" He sighed again and looked down into his drink. "I would do anything for her." He briskly looked up and smiled charmingly at Robert. "Sarah loves you dearly, and your opinion means a great deal to her," Robert scoffed a little at this and Jareth continued, "No, really, it does, and she will not be happy if we leave and you not happy, therefore, I will do what needs to be done."

Robert looked up at Jareth sharply, worried. "And just what is that, exactly?"

Jareth grinned, and for the first time, Robert noticed that his teeth were slightly pointed.

AA

"Karen, why exactly are we here?" Sarah asked as Karen sorted through a box of handbags.

"Sales, Sarah!" Karen said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Honestly, what kind of woman are you? Look at this bag! It was a hundred and twenty dollars but it's been marked down to fifty! What a bargain." The bag in question did not look worth even fifty dollars to Sarah, but she refrained from commenting.

"I realise that, and that's all very well and good, but Karen," she followed her step-mother as she went over to another box, elbowing another woman out of the way, "you've never cared for sales before. You've always waited until after the rush, because you've always said that you didn't see the point in fighting other people for something that's still extortionate…" Sarah moved around Karen, still holding onto her little brother's hand so that he wouldn't get lost. He kept tugging, incredibly bored and desperate to leave. "So why the sudden urge to join the masses?"

Karen held up a brilliant white bag with big buckles on and said, "What do you think, too bulky?"

"Too white, it'd show up the dirt easily," Sarah answered distractedly as Karen nodded and put the bag down. "Karen."

Karen sighed and faced her. "Oh alright. No, I don't really care for all this, I'm not so bothered about a sale that I want to fight everyone for it, but your father and Jareth need to talk, so…"

Sarah's heart sped up a little and she fought to keep her voice calm. "Do they?"

Karen smiled and shook her head, saying, "Yes, and there's no use you playing innocent with me, young lady."

Toby pulled on Sarah's hand again, this time letting himself hang there so that she was the only thing keeping him up. "Can we go yet?" He asked, sounding as though this was the worst torture he had ever been put through.

Sarah pulled him up, righting him with a stern, "Don't hang off me, Toby."

Karen chuckled and said, "Well, we might as well go. I'll just tell your father I couldn't see anything. Or perhaps I'll say I couldn't fight through the hordes…" She put the bag down, not looking particularly remorseful about losing it.

As they made their way out Sarah said, "So what makes you think that Dad and Jareth need to talk?"

"Please, Sarah, give me a little credit here," Karen answered, throwing Sarah a look over her shoulder. "Now, where shall we go?"

Though it was only Karen thinking out loud, Toby answered with, "I'm hungry!"

"Well, I guess that answers that question," Karen said with a laugh. "Where to, boss?"

"McDonalds!"

"Eugh," Sarah responded, rolling her eyes.

"McDonalds it is!" Karen said, taking her son's hand and leading the way.

Sarah watched them, wondering what exactly her step-mother thought was going on at home.

AA

"I'm sorry, what?" Robert said, staring at the Goblin King.

Jareth gritted his teeth; he hated having to repeat himself, and he wished that he could just throw the man in an oubliette and be done with it. However, he was Making An Effort, and when one Made An Effort, they did not just give up the first time someone failed to pay enough attention when he spoke. Maybe the second time. There was also the fact that this was Sarah's father. There were some things Jareth felt one could just not do to one's father-in-law, no matter how tempting.

"Tell me what you really think," he said as patiently as he could (which was still very impatient, but at least it was not accompanied by a dark hole somewhere in the Labyrinth).

"You want to know what I think?" Robert said in the tone of one who did not believe.

"Yes," Jareth said, clenching his jaw.

"About you?"

"Yes." He was rapidly loosing what little control he had on his willpower, and throwing the man in the Bog just seemed so appealing…

"And what? Then you'll have a decent excuse to use some of those punishments you were telling me about?" Robert sounded mad, but there was an undercurrent of fear is his voice.

"No," Jareth replied, taking another sip of the Goblin Toe. "I will not exact any revenge on you for telling me what you think about me." He met Robert's eyes as he said, "You have my word."

Robert hesitated, frowning unsurely at the king. He looked down at the drink in his hand and swirled it around the glass thoughtfully. After a moment where Robert appeared to be lost in thought, he turned back to the Goblin King with a new determination in his eyes. "Alright," he said decidedly. "You want to know what I think of you? I think you're untrustworthy. You're selfish and you've never done anything for anyone but yourself." Robert set the glass down as he continued, "You're condescending and you relish in making those around you feel as stupid and insignificant as you see them. You like that people are afraid of you, because it gives you control over them. Overall, you're a bit of a bastard," Robert finished, evenly, watching the king.

Jareth kept his expression blank, thinking over his options now. How many ways could he make Robert Williams suffer without seeming to have any involvement whatsoever?

As he was pondering this, Robert's voice broke through his thoughts, surprising him by the words. "You're also the man my daughter loves," Robert continued, with a frown. "Sarah does not give away her love easily; not that kind of love, anyway. So it makes me wonder; what does she see in you? What could you have possibly done to make her love you?"

Jareth kept silent, not taking his eyes away from Robert's, never blinking. Robert sighed and took a sip of his drink. "I don't think you've done anything to her. No spells or trickery. She's smarter than that. But it does make me wonder…" He hesitated a moment before continuing, "How did a man like you win my daughter's heart?"

There was silence for a moment before Jareth said, "Are you asking me that? How I managed to get Sarah to love me?"

"Would you be able to answer me if I was?"

Jareth thought about it. Could he honestly say he knew why Sarah had given in to him? Although it never really been giving in; Sarah submitted to no one. But she had fallen in love with him, despite everything. Jareth had never really questioned why, he just assumed it was because he was an irresistible force in her life, unyielding and impossible to ignore. There was no right answer to Robert's real question. So he answered, "No, I do not think I could."

AA

Sarah wrinkled her nose at the chicken burger before her. It was supposed to be one hundred per cent chicken breast, but she was wary. Who knew what else was in there? At least it was better than a beef burger. She watched her brother attack his happy meal, wondering what it was that made that particular meal happier than her own. Apparently it had something to do with the free toy.

Karen had opted for a chicken wrap, eating it as delicately as possible. She glanced up at her step-daughter, saying, "Aren't you going to eat that?"

Sarah's nose wrinkled again, and she picked up the burger, taking a small bite from it. It did not taste too bad, but Sarah was not looking forward to finishing the thing. She heard soft laughter and looked up to see her step-mother chuckling at her.

"It won't kill you, you know," Karen said, taking another bite from her wrap.

"Are you sure about that?" Sarah asked ruefully, watching her little brother devour the rest of his burger before moving on to the fries.

Karen followed her gaze on then rolled her eyes, turning back to Sarah and saying, "So long as you don't inhale it like a certain six year old boy, fairly positive."

Sarah laughed and then her expression turned serious as she set down her chicken burger. "Karen, how much has dad told you about, you know, the reason why he and Jareth need to talk?"

"Hmm?" Karen murmured distractedly as she reached over to wipe ketchup from Toby's mouth with a serviette. "Oh nothing, he hasn't said anything."

"Really?" Sarah asked, surprised. "Aren't you curious?"

"Well of course I'm curious," Karen said, leaving Toby alone for the moment. "However, I trust your father to tell me when he's ready. Just like I trust you."

Even though it was unintended, Sarah felt a pang of guilt sweep through her at Karen's words. "Karen, um…"

"Oh, sweetheart, it's okay, I don't expect you to tell me. You don't have to tell me anything," she said with a reassuring smile. "But I want you to know that I'm here for you should you ever need to talk about it. Or anything, anything at all."

Sarah hesitated and said, "Karen, it's not that I don't want to tell you, it's just that…"

"Sarah honey, it's fine. Really." Karen smiled before going back to her wrap. "You should eat that before it gets cold."

Sarah grimaced at her burger and took another bite. As she chewed, she reached a decision. She would tell Karen. But she would wait until they got home. A public area was no place to find out that ones step-daughter was married to a fairytale king of mischievous goblins. Especially McDonald's.

AA

When they walked back through the door the house was hushed. Sarah looked around from the foyer and called, "Hello? Jareth? Dad?"

Silence was her only greeting. She glanced at Karen helping Toby out of his shoes (apparently the boy had managed to knot his laces in an innovative way that resisted being undone) before stepping into the hallway.

"We're home," she called again, looking around. She went into the living room but there was no one there; only a half full decanter of a purple liquid which upon closer inspection she recognised as Goblin Toe. Nasty stuff, but good for getting particularly stubborn stains up from the flagstones in the castle. She frowned at it, but moved on with her search.

She started as she entered the kitchen, seeing her father sitting with a glass in front of him and his head in his hands. "There you are," she said, relieved. "I was starting to worry." She looked around and asked, "Where's Jareth?"

Robert grunted and said, "Oh, I don't know. Around."

Sarah looked at him carefully and said, "You've been drinking that Goblin Toe I saw out there, haven't you?"

Robert nodded slowly and said, "It really packs a punch."

Sarah sighed and picked up the glass to get him some more water. She set it down in front of him and said, "Drink up. It'll make you feel better." Robert grunted again and sipped at the water. "At least it passes through your system quickly," Sarah said, rubbing his back. "You should feel alright soon."

Robert made a non-committal sound and Sarah smiled briefly at him before moving away to find her husband.

She went up the stairs to her room and sure enough, there was Jareth. He had not noticed her yet, and was staring out the window with his arms folded. She smiled at the sight of him and moved towards him, wrapping her arms around his waist. He turned his head to her and she grinned up at him. "Hi."

"Hello," he said, pulling her around so that she was in front of him. "Did you enjoy your shopping trip?" Sarah frowned and he grinned in response. "That good, hmm?"

"I'm sure we didn't have as much fun as you and my dad," she replied. She raised a brow and said, "Goblin Toe?"

"I thought it might help to loosen him up a bit," Jareth said, raising his head in a dignified way.

"I bet you gave it to him straight first, didn't you?"

He pursed his lips slightly and said, "I might have done."

She shook her head and said, "Did it help?"

"Somewhat, yes." He did not say anymore on the matter and Sarah sighed, leaning into him for a hug.

"Keep trying. Next time try something less potent than Goblin Toe," Sarah offered. She snuggled her face close to his chest, wondering just how she was going to tell Karen. Surely the woman would not believe her? She had to try, though. At some point, she would try.

Jareth held his wife and breathed her in. What he wanted more than anything right now was to be back in his castle with Sarah and to have all this mess behind them. But he was a king; he did not shirk his responsibilities, no matter how wearisome. He was fairly certain that he had won the bet now, though.

AA

Finally,_finally_, it was New Year's Eve. Robert and Karen had opted to have a small gathering of friends round their house to celebrate. Jareth was tempted to speed up time and make it pass quickly, but he knew Sarah would not approve. He resigned himself to having to do things the mortal way, but that did not mean he had to be happy about it.

He and Robert had not spoken much since their talk. It was not that they were not talking, they just had nothing to say.

On Sarah's part, she had still not gotten round to saying anything to Karen. She had never intended to tell either of them, thinking it would be far too complicated and that they would never understand. She had explained to her father out of necessity, and she had been right; he had not understood. Not really.

Still, a new year was fast approaching, and it meant to be a time for new beginnings. One made resolutions and tried their best to stick to them (although Sarah usually found she could not keep them beyond a few weeks). Sarah already knew one of hers was to be honest with Karen and tell her exactly what was going on, and more importantly, what had happened before. She only hoped that her stupid wish made as a teenager did not ruin the closeness she now shared with her step-mother. Sarah sighed deeply, not really seeing the punch bowl in front of her.

"Something tells me your heart isn't really in that," she heard behind her. Turning, she saw Karen with eyebrows raised, an amused smile playing across her lips.

"Sorry," Sarah said. "I was just thinking."

"Oh dear, well try not to hurt yourself," Karen said, putting down the plates she had been carrying. "Now, where did I put the napkins?"

"I think I saw them in the dresser drawer," Sarah said, nodding towards it.

Karen went over to it, opening the right drawer first then the left. "Aha!" She said triumphantly. "Thank you honey." She put them next to the punch bowl Sarah was pouring the punch into and paused. "Sarah, is there something wrong?"

Sarah started a little, and looked at the older woman. "What makes you ask?" She asked carefully.

"You seem tense," Karen commented. "If you need to talk, I'm always here."

"Thanks Karen," Sarah said. She bit her lip as her step-mother moved away and then burst out, "Karen?"

Karen spun around and looked at her. "Yes?"

Sarah opened her mouth to speak, but then Toby charged in, knocking into Karen while he 'flew' the little plane he had gotten in his happy meal a few days earlier.

"Toby!" Karen scolded. "Watch where you're going."

"Sorry mommy," Toby said, looking suitably chastened. However, he was not to escape so easily as Karen saw that Toby's fingers were sticky with something pinkish in colour.

"What on earth have you got all over your hands?" She said, taking them in her own. Realisation dawned as she said, "Toby! Have you been eating the jello that was supposed to be setting?"

"Um," Toby answered, obviously wondering whether he could get away with lying.

Sarah sighed and left her step-mother to it. Tomorrow, she thought as Karen scolded Toby and led him away to wash his hands. Tomorrow she would tell Karen the truth about everything.

AA

The party was in full swing and Jareth was in his element. He was a king, born to charm those around him and command their attention. Robert and Karen's friends were impressed with their daughter's choice of husband, and Jareth mentally smirked at how easily he won people over.

Sarah sat nearby with Toby curled up on her lap, dozing, and watched her husband with a small smile. He had such an ease to him that people were always drawn to and he could use this to his advantage, whether it was to win them over or to belittle them.

The sofa sank and she looked over to see her father sitting beside her, also watching Jareth. "I hate to admit it," Robert said, "but he certainly has a way with people."

Sarah smiled and said, "I think it's part of the job."

Robert grunted in response and Sarah shifted, turning to her father whilst trying not to disturb Toby in her lap. "Dad," she said hesitantly, "I know all this is hard for you to accept, but I promise, I'm happy."

Robert sighed and turned to her. "I know, I can see that, but Sarah, honey, he's a goblin king. A goblin king!"

"The," Sarah corrected dryly, "and yes, I'm well aware. Dad, I love him. He loves me. He would never hurt me and we're both happy." She looked directly at her father and said, "Please, just be happy for me."

Robert could feel his will crumbling and let out frustrated sigh. "Okay, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop trying to not like the guy. It's the principle of thing."

Sarah grinned and leaned over, placing a kiss on Robert's cheek. "Thank you daddy."

He grunted again and waved her off before groaning as Toby started to wake, "No no, go back to sleep," he said desperately, but it was too late. Sarah let Toby off her and he pulled Robert up, insisting that he have more jello. She watched them walk away, her father's the steps of a doomed man, and felt someone behind her.

"I swear that boy's veins are going to be running with jello by the time the night is over," Jareth said in her ear. She smiled and turned, planting a soft kiss against his lips. Jareth smiled as she pulled away and said, "Not that I'm complaining, but what was that for?"

"Oh, for just being your wonderful self," she said leaning against him and pulling his arms around her.

"I see," Jareth said, nuzzling his head against hers. "Wait till you meet my amazing self, though maybe we should wait until the guests are gone…"

She laughed and said, "Maybe that would be a good idea."

AA

"Let me get this right," Jareth said to his wife who he held in his arms. "At the stroke of midnight, everybody shouts 'Happy New Year' and kisses, correct?"

"Pretty much," Sarah confirmed.

"And then we all join hands and… sing?"

He said it so disdainfully that Sarah giggled. "I wouldn't have thought you would be so adverse to a bit of singing," she teased.

"Only when I know the words. How does _Auld Lang Sine_ go, anyway?" He asked.

"Um," Sarah said, considering it. "Actually, I'm not sure. I usually just sort of hum along," she confessed.

"Wonderful," Jareth commented dryly.

Sarah did not get a chance to respond as her dad suddenly said, "Here we go! Ten!"

"Nine!" She joined in with a smile.

"Eight!" She waggled her eyebrows at Jareth and he rolled his eyes.

"Seven!" He said as well, not quite as enthusiastically as the rest.

"Six!"

"Five!"

"Four!"

"Three!" Sarah smiled up at her husband, glad that she was with him.

"Two!" She hoped the next year would be as good as this one, considering last year she married the man she loved.

"One! Happy New Year!" She pulled Jareth down into a kiss, enjoying his slight surprise quickly followed by his eagerness to join in.

And then there were people pulling them apart, kissing Sarah on the cheek and shaking hands with Jareth. Jareth kissed the women on the cheek and found himself being pulled into a circle where everyone had their arms crossed and were holding hands shaking in time to the song they started singing.

Jareth just went along with it, hoping it was a relatively short song.

Fairly soon he was set free, and he made his way to Sarah and claimed her for a dance to the music that had just been put on. Perhaps this whole thing was not so bad after all, he thought.

AA

The guests were leaving, exclaiming what a good time they had, and how they would have to do it again next year, and Sarah felt ready to collapse like Toby. She envied him, curled up asleep on the sofa. She knew Karen would want to start the clean-up operation almost immediately.

"I think that went well," Karen commented, brandishing bin bags.

Sarah reluctantly took one and started picking up napkins dotted around the place and party popper mess. "Yeah, it was nice," Sarah said, thinking about her kiss with Jareth and the talk with her dad. She glanced over at her step-mother, who was holding a half-full plastic cup and clearly debating whether to just throw it in the bin or whether to empty it first. The latter won, and she went into the kitchen.

Sarah bit her lip slightly before following Karen.

"Karen?" She said.

"Hmm?" Karen replied, turning briefly before going back to frown at the mess that was once a jello mould of a frog.

"I have something I need to tell you," Sarah said hesitantly. She spotted Jareth who must have been looking for her and motioned him over. "Actually, we have something to tell you."

"Oh?" Karen said, before she brightened and said, "Oh! Oh my, you're not pregnant, are you?"

"What? No," Sarah said, and turned to her husband, who had tensed as soon as Karen said it, "No." To give him credit, he tried not to look too relieved.

"Oh," Karen said, looking disappointed. "Well, what is it, honey?"

"Um, I'm not quite sure how to tell you this," Sarah said hesitantly, looking at Jareth for support, before continuing, "but, well… Do you remember that book I used to have? _The Labyrinth_?"

"Oh, that, of course," Karen said, picking up the sticky dish of jello and plonking it in the sink. "You used to read it all the time. What about it?"

"Well, the thing is," Sarah said, taking a deep breath, "The thing is, it's real."

"What's real?" Karen asked, running some hot water.

"The book. The Labyrinth. The Goblin King. All of it." Karen turned to look at her with raised eyebrows. Sarah quickly continued, "And well, Jareth is, um, Jareth is the Goblin King." She watched Karen carefully, ready to argue her point, hoping she wouldn't freak out too much.

"Oh," Karen said, looking between the two of them. "Okay dear." With that she turned back to the sink.

Sarah looked up at Jareth confused, and he shrugged in response. "It's true, I'm not making it up," Sarah said, in case that was the reason for the lack of reaction. "Jareth is the Goblin King. I made a stupid wish when I was younger and he granted it, and well-"

"Yes, I know," Karen said, nodding. "I've read the book."

Sarah hesitated and then said, "I'm sorry, you know what, exactly? About the story or about Jareth?"

"Well, both," Karen said with a shrug, frowning at the stubborn jello refusing to melt away.

"What!" Sarah said, darting a look between her step-mother and Jareth. "What do you mean, 'both?'"

"Sarah, honey, I'm really too tired to get into this right now," Karen said, turning of the tap. "And I've still got a lot of cleaning up to do, so can we talk about this in the morning?"

"Talk about what in the morning?" Robert asked, entering the kitchen. He had just put Toby to bed and looked ready to retire himself.

"Did you tell her?" Sarah asked accusingly.

"Tell her what?" Robert asked.

"Oh, don't be silly Sarah, of course he didn't," Karen replied, leaning against the worktop and folding her arms.

"Didn't what?" Robert said, starting to get frustrated. Jareth just stood watching, suppressing an amused smile.

"Well if Dad didn't tell you, how do you know?" Sarah said frowning at Karen.

"Am I on mute or something?" Robert said, looking over at Jareth. Jareth just shrugged in response, no longer able to keep the amusement from his face.

"You read that book so often when you were growing up I thought I'd give it the once over," Karen said with a shrug. "It didn't seem so bad, so I didn't see a reason to interfere. And then when Jareth showed up," she waved a hand and shrugged again, "I put two and two together. It's obvious, when you think about it."

Sarah gaped at the older woman. Karen, who used to wear shoulder pads like there was no tomorrow – Karen, who did not know whether a tomato was a fruit or a vegetable… Karen had figured out, on her own, that Jareth was the Goblin King. And did not seem to have any problem with it in the slightest.

"Karen," Sarah said, trying to speak as calmly as possible, "you do realise what I'm saying, what _you're_ saying, right? Jareth," she emphasised his name, "is the Goblin King. The king of goblins, reigning monarch of mischievous mythical creatures, a being who should not exist according to our world!" Karen just raised her eyebrows at Sarah, who continued, "And you're okay with that?"

"Yes, but I'm starting to think you're not," Karen said.

"Wait, so you've known all along about him?" Robert interjected, pointing a finger towards Jareth.

"Of course," Karen said, rolling her eyes, clearly getting tired of this conversation.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Robert demanded.

"Well dear, I didn't think you'd believe me," Karen said mildly, moving over to him. "Never mind, though, it's all out in the open now, and that's what counts. Now, I'm going to bed, because I really am tired. I'll clean in the morning." She kissed him on the cheek and said, "Good night, dear."

Robert watched her go, stunned. He glanced between Sarah and Jareth before hurrying after his wife.

Sarah turned to her husband, still looking shocked, and he enfolded her in his arms. "I didn't see that coming," Sarah said after a moment.

"Be grateful," Jareth advised. "It could have been a lot worse."

"How so?" Sarah said, too tired to think about it.

"She could have reacted like your father."

Sarah shuddered in his arms and said in a weary voice, "Can we go to bed now?"

Jareth chuckled and led the way.

AA

"So why have you got a car then?" Robert asked as he helped Jareth but their bags in the trunk.

"Sarah thought it would be a bit suspicious if we showed up without one," Jareth said, pushing the bags in properly.

"Which begs the question; now that we know, why are we putting the bags in the car?" Robert asked.

"Because it still needs to go back to the airport and Sarah is unwilling to let me just take it there instantly and even more unwilling to let me drive it there myself before coming back to her. Therefore it makes sense to just leave from the airport," Jareth said, closing the trunk with a solid thump.

"Right," Robert said, nodding. He was still getting used to the fact that his daughter didn't live in England but rather in a place called the Underground. Not to mention who her husband really was. They moved back to the doorstep where Sarah was saying goodbye to Karen and Toby. "You know," he said conversationally as they walked up the drive, "I always thought your wedding was a bit weird. Guess now I know why."

Jareth grinned at him and said, "Weird? You should have seen the reception party the goblins held later."

Sarah hugged her step-mother before stepping back. "This has been," Sarah cast around for an appropriate word, "enlightening."

Karen laughed and said, "Hasn't it? Maybe next year we could come to yours."

Sarah shot a look towards Jareth and her father and said, "We'll see." She knelt down in front of her brother and said, "I'm going then."

Toby looked as though he was trying not to cry as he said, "When will I see you again?"

"Soon," Sarah promised. "Now, give me a hug before I go." The six year old launched himself at her and she smiled, hugging him tight. "I'll miss you," she told him softly.

Toby nodded on her shoulder and said, "I'll miss you too."

She let him go and smiled at him, wiping away the tears that had spilled over. "Go say bye to Jareth."

The boy ran over to Jareth hugging him around the waist. Jareth hesitated before stooping down and giving Toby a hug in return. Sarah smiled at them and turned back to her parents. "Well," she said with a shrug. "I guess this is it."

Robert hugged her tightly and then, casting a glance over to Jareth, who was busy saying something to Toby, said, "Sarah…"

"I know, Dad," she smiled as she pulled away. "I know. Thanks."

He smiled and said, "You'd better get going or we'll be here all day."

"Right," Sarah said turning to Jareth and Toby.

Toby was putting something in his pocket and looked more cheerful, but before she could question what she had just seen, Jareth said, "Ready?"

"Yeah." She looked at her family and smiled. "Bye, have a good new year!"

"Bye Sarah, bye Jareth!" Toby called as they walked away. Robert and Karen waved.

Sarah and Jareth got in the car and she drove off, back towards the airport and far out of sight of her house and her family. She sighed heavily, already missing being at home. Jareth reached over and squeezed her hand on the gear stick, causing her to smile and look up at him. Never mind, she thought. I'll be home again soon.

It was a nice moment, and she turned her eyes back to the road with a smile on her face. Until Jareth said, "So when can I drive?"

AA

Sarah, Jareth, bags and all dropped into the throne room in their castle. "Never?" Jareth asked, watching her incredulously.

"Not if I have anything to do with it," Sarah said, picking up her bag and walking towards the door.

"But surely-"

"No, Jareth," Sarah called as she disappeared around the door.

Jareth sighed to himself. They had had the same conversation all the way there and all the way back, but no matter what he said, he just could not convince Sarah to allow him to drive, or learn to drive. He wondered how many of those races she had seen between he and Toby, or rather, how many times he had crashed. But it couldn't be that close to the real thing, could it? He shook his head, resigning to plan a way to convince her later. Then he stopped as he noticed his surroundings.

It looked as though something had exploded in the throne room, and all was eerily quiet. He glared about at the mess and empty throne, before summoning Hoggle and Earl to him.

They appeared before him, Hoggle looking surprised at the sudden change of location and Earl… well, Earl was asleep, but the bird whistled and said, "Wow, what happened here?"

"That is precisely what I would like to know," Jareth said dangerously.

"Well, yer see, yer majesty," Hoggle began hesitantly, looking about himself in a panicked way, "the goblins, they found this – this thing, sort of a whirring device, and when they found out what it could do-"

"Get to the point, Hogsbrain," Jareth said, folding his arms and glaring down at the little man.

"Well," Hoggle said, shifting uncomfortably, "let me put it this way. The device boils eggs from thirty paces," he paused and added, "whether you want it to or not." Hoggle glanced around the room and said, "Should stay away from hens, 'cause it ain't pretty when they blow…"

Jareth sighed. Same old, same old… "Where is the device now then?"

"That's the thing," Hoggle said, looking worried. "We were going after them when you bought us back; they were heading to the ostrich plantation…"

* * *

I'm really, _really_ sorry for the late update. I know I said New Year's Day, but I've been struggling to get this chapter going where I wanted it to go. I hope the wait was worth it. There is over ten thousand, eight hundred words here, so you know… Sarah and Karen were going to go shopping on Boxing Day, but apparently Boxing Day is more of a British thing, so… eh, well. 

I would just like to say thank you to everyone who has reviewed, added this story to their favourites and/or their story alerts. It means a lot to me that you like it enough to do that, so really, thanks. Also, sorry if you reviewed the last chapter and I didn't reply. I'm sure I missed a few of the last ones, but I honestly can't remember which…

P.S. I think I have officially been thrown in the Bog of Eternal Stench by now for missing my last promised deadline of Saturday. Woe is me.

P.P.S. Bonus points if anyone knows where the 'whirring device' that 'boils eggs at thirty paces' comes from and what it's called.


	7. Let Sleeping Children Lie

**Let Sleeping Children Lie**

Sarah was left on her own in the throne room with the latest 'wish-away' one day and was feeling quite bored. Jareth had expressly forbidden her to have anything to do with the one trying to solve the Labyrinth, seeming to think she might help them, or something. Really, it was like he didn't trust her at all, she thought. He had been quite insistent though – "I mean it Sarah, you do one thing, _one thing_, to help them and so help me I'm outlawing chocolate" – so she had graciously agreed to watch over the child and stay out of the way. The thing was, the kid had been asleep since it had gotten here. She estimated it to be about two years of age, but beyond that she couldn't tell much, apart from that either it or the person who dressed it liked Winnie-the-Pooh, judging by its pyjamas. It was curled up in the circle in the centre of the room, somehow sleeping through the din of the goblins, and had curly blond hair and fair skin. She couldn't even tell if it was a boy or a girl.

Why, she wondered, as she squatted down next to it with her head cocked on one side trying to see it better, would someone wish this kid away? It had been here for about three hours now and hadn't woken up once. She wondered if something was wrong with it, and whether she should wake it up. Then she remembered the time when Toby was a small baby and she had woken him up and he had cried for ages, prompting Karen to scold her and tell her never to wake a sleeping baby. She wondered at what age that stopped applying.

She was really bored though, and curious, and it was just so tempting to wake the thing up… She started to reach her hands towards it when a voice behind her said, "What are you doing?"

She quickly stood and span around to find her husband standing there, arms folded, glaring at her suspiciously. "Nothing," she said innocently.

Jareth, strangely enough, didn't look convinced. "Really," he said, in a disbelieving tone.

"Honestly," She said. She looked back at the sleeping child. "Do you think something's wrong with it?"

"Why would something be wrong with it?" Jareth asked, turning from her to drape himself over his throne, one leg dangling over the arm.

"Well, it hasn't woken up since it got here," Sarah said, the concern showing in her face.

Jareth met her eyes and sighed. "Perhaps it's just tired," he offered.

"You think?" She asked doubtfully, chewing on her lip slightly.

"Well, it was quite late in the mortal realm when I got it," Jareth said.

"Oh," Sarah said, seeming to relax a little. She moved over to him and sat in the space between his legs, resting her head on his chest. Jareth smirked smugly, bringing an arm to rest over her shoulder. He started to massage her shoulder gently, and dipped his head to kiss her neck softly.

"What's its name?"

Jareth blinked and said, "What?"

"The child." She turned to look up at him. "What's its name?"

"Oh. Sam," he answered, and moved down towards her to kiss her.

"Well that doesn't help," Sarah said thoughtfully, turning her head away from him.

Jareth sighed. "Doesn't help what?" He asked, not really caring. He had his wife in his arms, the child was asleep and some time to spare while the boy was running around the outer walls. Why couldn't she just forget whatever it was for a while so they could enjoy themselves?

"Well, I can't tell if it's a boy or a girl," Sarah answered, now frowning at the child.

"Sam is short for Samuel, so I imagine it's a boy." Now that matter was taken care of, they could get back to more important things. He stroked her arms slowly, caressing her while he kissed her neck.

"Sam is short for Samantha too," Sarah pointed out, ignoring her husband's attempts, or quite possibly she was just oblivious to them while her mind was distracted, he thought irritably.

With another sigh he dropped his arms away from her. "Yes, but then Sam can be used on its own when naming a boy, and since that is what the brother called it, I imagine it is just Sam, and therefore a boy."

Before he could even attempt to seduce his wife once more she said, "Not necessarily. They might not use its full name, so it could be a girl. And besides, it's dressed in Winnie-the-Pooh."

"So?"

"So Winnie-the-Pooh is more of a girl's choice." She nodded with her reasoning and said, "Yeah, so it's a girl. Must be." She turned to him and said, "Right?"

"I don't know," he said. I don't care, he thought to himself. I just want to take the opportunity of being alone, well, relatively alone, he amended remembering the sleeping child, with my wife and spend the time well.

"So you still think it could be a boy?" She asked.

He sighed. "I don't know. I haven't got a clue whether it's a boy or a girl, Samuel or Samantha, cars or dolls; I don't know. And I don't care," he added with a growl, pulling her back towards him.

"Jareth!" She exclaimed, pushing against him. He noticed her cheeks were delightfully reddened, but before he could take it in she stood away from him. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I thought I might spend some time with my wife, making sure she didn't get too bored while I was dealing with the boy in the labyrinth by making use of our free time," he said irritably.

"You can't expect me to, I mean, us to, you know, with the child right there!" She said. She crossed her arms and looked at the child worriedly.

"Why not? It's asleep," Jareth said, rising from his seat.

"It might wake up!"

"It would be a good education for it then," he said, moving towards her.

"Jareth!" She looked scandalised.

"Sarah, it has been asleep for hours now, it's not going to wake up anytime soon," he said.

"It probably would, what with, you know, the noise," she pointed out self-consciously.

"I can be very quiet," he promised with feral grin. "You on the other hand… well, I'm still sure it wouldn't wake."

She blushed. "No."

"No?" he questioned as he closed the gap between them. He kissed her lightly on the cheek, so warm thanks to her embarrassment, and gently stroked the other cheek with his hand.

"No," she said again, though not as forcefully. "Jareth…"

"Dearest Sarah," he replied, his lips moving to hers. The kiss was soft at first, tempting, and as he felt Sarah giving in to him, he pressed his tongue between her lips. She responded, and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling herself up a little to reach him better.

"Your majesty! Your majesty!" A voice shouted off to his right.

He growled as Sarah pulled away from him and turned on the goblin. "What?"

"It's the boy; he's found the short cut!"

Jareth glared dangerously at the goblin. "Are you sure?"

The goblin sensed – finally – that it could be in a lot of trouble here, and not just for the news he'd bought. Terrified, but knowing that his king was awaiting an answer, he nodded.

Jareth let out a cry that sounded more like a low growl and swirled around to his wife. "We will continue this later," he promised.

Sarah wasn't sure whether she should be scared or turned on, but she didn't need to reply since he disappeared just after that. She sighed and collapsed on his throne, looking at the child. It still hasn't woken up, she thought, even after that growl. So we probably could have gotten away with something. The thought made her blush slightly and then she noticed the goblin was still there.

"Was there something else?" She asked it.

The goblin jumped when it realised she had noticed it and said, "Oh, no your majesty."

For a moment it still stood there, not taking the hint and Sarah sighed. "You may leave then," she said, trying to sound as queenly as possible.

The goblin skittered out of the room, leaving Sarah on her own with the child again. After ten minutes she had slumped in the throne slightly, bored out of her mind again. She hoped Jareth would be back soon. Especially since the child was still sound asleep.

AA

Jareth glared at the boy as he skidded to a halt when he spotted the king. "I'm going to make this very simple," Jareth started, circling the terrified boy, "since I was in the middle of something when you decided upon this course. You are going to answer my questions, and if you answer them satisfactorily, I may just let you win."

The boy, a young teenager who hadn't expected his idol threat gleaned from his older sister's favourite book to actually work against his younger sibling, watched the king warily, but nodded.

"Have you had help finding your way?" Jareth said, still circling.

The boy shook his head. He had been trying to find his way out from between those two walls for ages, going back and forth and finally had rested against a wall. Except that there had been no wall there and he had fallen straight through. He had set off down the left path and then moments later the Goblin King had been waiting for him, looking dark and menacing. He just wanted to get the kid and go home.

"No? Very well. If you were to get out of here, would you ever call upon me again?" Jareth said, a dark look upon his face.

And risk the Goblin King's wrath, he wondered. Not likely. He shook his head again, emphatically this time.

The king smirked at the fear he inspired. "Learned your lesson then, have you?"

Again the boy nodded.

"Fine."

Suddenly they were standing in a room, and a pretty woman rose quickly from a throne.

"Take the child and go," the Goblin King said, his eye wandering to the woman, who looked at the boy curiously.

He didn't need to be told twice and quickly scooped up the sleeping child. He noticed out of the corner of his eye the woman speaking to the Goblin King quietly. The King sighed, then nodded and said, "One more thing."

Scared of what the king might do, he turned towards them worriedly. The woman was frowning in a thoughtful way at the kid, and the king looked him in the eye.

"We were wondering; is Sam a boy or a girl?"

* * *

Incidentally, did you know 'on her own' is a reflexive pronoun? My computer did, and moaned at me, causing me to wonder, what on earth is a reflexive pronoun? According to Wikipedia (what _doesn't_ this thing know?) a reflexive pronoun is 'a pronoun that is preceded by the noun or pronoun to which it refers (its antecedent) within the same clause.'

From what I can gather, it means you're talking about the same stuff twice, or something. The more pressing question is why I should consider revising my reflexive pronoun use. Any answers should be sent on the back of a postcard to me entitled, 'Who cares? Really.'

I'm guessing either you didn't really like the last chapter or you felt I had kept you waiting so long for it it did not deserve to be reviewed. I'm not sure which is worse… Since I assume neither is true and all that is just me being paranoid, my next guess is that no one noticed it, or it's been so long that you forgot about this one.

Either way, this chapter was written before Christmas, so it's (probably) a return to how the first few chapters were. I'm not sure about this one, but I hope you like it, and as always, let me know what you think, good or bad.


	8. A Better Way

**A Better Way  
**

That went well, Jareth thought sarcastically. He wondered how long it would take the hedge maze to grow back after being set on fire. He had done the best he could to help it along, but only time would tell. For now, it looked like anyone trying to solve the labyrinth would have a surprisingly easy time when they got to that section.

He walked into the throne room, muttering about fireys and how he was going to seal off the forest better in future. Or possibly what would be best for hunting down the little miscreants. Sarah was reading a book, curled up in his throne, and had not noticed him yet. As Jareth started towards her, a goblin stumbled in his way, nearly making him trip. Without any thought, he kicked the goblin across the room.

"Jareth!" He looked up to see his wife's shocked look.

"What?"

"You can't just kick them because you're in a bad mood!"

"Why not?" He shrugged. "They enjoy it."

"Does it look like they're enjoying it?" She demanded. He met her eyes, and then looked at the goblins before him. They did seem to be cowering before him, carefully watching him and where his feet were going.

Jareth sighed. "Sarah, sometimes they deserve a good kicking. There's no other way to keep them in line!"

She scowled at him. "You could try talking to them, reasoning with them," she suggested.

Jareth couldn't help but scoff at that idea. "Have you actually attempted a conversation with them, Sarah?" Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, judging by the cold glare he was receiving.

"They might surprise you if you tried for once," she insisted in a cool tone.

He met her glare with amusement and said, "Very well, if you think that will work, then please, by all means, try." He gestured towards the goblins, who were watching the conversation much like one would watch tennis; going back and forth between the two.

She glared at him and then looked suddenly panicked and said, "Wait, what? Me?"

"Of course," he said, enjoying himself. "It is your idea, after all."

"But they're your goblins!" She exclaimed.

"Our goblins, my dear. Remember we are married, and what's mine is yours and all that." The expression on her face was adorable, and for once he wished he had one of those human devices – a camela? – to take a picture. He would have to rely on his memory to keep that image of her shocked realisation, though.

"But," Sarah faltered, looking around at the goblins. They blinked up at her expectantly. She stood and moved over to Jareth. "But what do I say?"

"I don't know Sarah," he replied, trying not to let his amusement show too much on his face. "I usually just kick them, remember?"

He earned a scowl for that and he watched with interest as Sarah turned around to face the goblins.

"Alright, listen up you lot!" She said, with more nerves than she had right then. She looked around herself for inspiration, and then decided she might as well take care of something that had been bothering her for a while now. "I, um, I want you to clean up this room, okay? Nice and tidy, with everything in its place. Do you think you can do that for me?" She watched as they blinked at her, then blinked at each other. She sighed and said, "Please? Please clean this room."

There was silence for a moment and none of them moved, except to stare bewilderedly at each other. Jareth was trying not to laugh at their confusion. They were simply not used to being asked to do something; he always ordered them to do it. Sarah was about to give up when one goblin hesitantly picked up a feather off the ground. It looked at Sarah for her reaction. Sarah nodded, hope springing to her face. The goblin slowly walked towards the window, watching Sarah the whole time. The eyes of its brethren were on it, waiting to see if it was about to be congratulated for doing right or kicked harder than ever before for messing up.

When it reached the window it held the feather up and then stretched it outside. Sarah nodded again, and the goblin, looking between her and the feather suddenly let it go. It twirled downwards and the goblin braced itself for whatever was about to happen.

Sarah smiled and said, "Well, it's a start." Turning to Jareth she started, "Really it would be better if we had bags or something, but-"

She was interrupted by a great commotion as all the goblins started throwing stuff out the window. It took five to lift the throne before Sarah exclaimed, "No!" She quickly went over to them and pushed the throne down. "No, not this. Just the rubbish, the mess."

The goblins looked at each other and shrugged. They moved back to throwing stuff out, beginning to enjoy the task.

Sarah had to intervene again when they were about to throw a chicken out, and then one of the drunken goblins who had fallen asleep in the corner. Jareth watched the entire affair with a smirk and his arms crossed. Really, it was a lot easy to just order them and kick them when they got it wrong.

Sarah collapsed on his throne after a while, watching the goblins chucking everything out. Jareth walked over and picked her up, holding her on his lap as he sat down. "Tired?" He asked. She nodded. "Give up?" She scowled.

"Never."

He smirked and said, "That's my girl."

She sighed and snuggled her head into his chest. He kissed the top of her head as he watched the goblins trying to find something else to throw.

"I think they have run out of things to, ah, clean," he commented. She sighed again and turned to look at the now expectant goblins. "Better give them something else to do," he said. "Otherwise they might get bored and ruin all the good work they have just done."

She got up and looked around and the strangely bare room. "Oh, I don't know, dust," she said, walking out of the room, a headache developing.

Jareth smirked and said, "You heard the woman." He followed after her, leaving the goblins on their own.

Which might not have been such a good idea.

"How are we supposed to do that?" One goblin said, turning to another.

"Don't know. What's 'dust?'" Asked another.

"I think it's like, um, getting rid of cobwebs and stuff?" It answered. The goblins looked up at the cobwebs.

"How are we supposed to reach that high?" The first asked.

"Hmm," one goblin said, thoughtfully picking his nose. "I've seen humans use things before, like a pole with fluffiness on the end."

The goblins contemplated this for a moment. The moment stretched on as they attempted to use their brains. A difficult task indeed. Then one spoke up, "Here's a pole." He held up a long bit of wood uncertainly that had somehow been saved from expulsion out the window. The goblins perked up. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard.

The nose picker said, "I think the fluffy part was the important bit…" He trailed. The goblins all drooped again.

"Fluffy, fluffy, what's fluffy?" One of the goblins muttered. He noticed the gaze of the nose picker, one finger lodged up his nose as he stared across the room, and turned to follow his gaze. Ah, he thought. Fluffy…

Slowly, the eyes of all the goblins turned towards one corner.

If they had evolved to be more intelligent than, say, a beansprout, the chicken may have noticed the looks all around it, and may have worried about where a certain pole was going to find itself shortly.

As it was, chickens are dumb creatures. It never saw them coming…

AA

Sarah returned to the throne room about an hour later, during which Jareth had found her collapsed on the bed and had promptly given her a massage, which had very quickly turned into something more. She had left him snoozing, thinking she had better check to see what the goblins had gotten up to in her absence.

She walked in to see them standing very proudly around the room, and it was definitely looking a lot cleaner. "Wow," she said. "This looks great." She looked up and said, "You even got rid of the cobwebs! How did you…" She trailed as she saw the pole in one their hands. With a feeling of dread, her eyes travelled up the pole to see…

AA

The shriek woke Jareth up from his dozing. Quickly he got up, clothes appearing on him and he went to Sarah.

…Just in time to see her kicking the goblins. He saw why and laughed, righting the poor chicken with a wave of the hand.

He loved it when he was right.

* * *

I've had the bit with the goblins and the chicken written for quite a while, but nowhere to put it, and then I couldn't find it amongst the masses of stories on my computer, but never mind, it's in. Ah, my life is now complete. 

Many thanks to my reviewers, and to those who leave an unsigned review – if you leave an e mail address too, I can reply properly to you. As it is…

Nette – You will have a chapter as your answer...


	9. Pillow Talk

**Pillow Talk**

They had been lying in bed for a while now. Sarah loved these moments. There was peace and quiet before they had to get up and see what trouble the goblins had created. She could just curl up with her husband and enjoy the warmth and contentment. Sometimes they would talk, usually about little things, silly things, things Sarah wanted to know about where she lived now.

She had had a dream that night during which she was walking past some docks with a baby in her arms. Then a car had shown up and she was supposed to get in the back, but she had to run from the rhino stampede… She wondered vaguely what it meant, but thinking of the baby bought a question to her mind.

"Jareth," Sarah said, wondering how best to bring up the subject. She looked up at him from his chest, and saw he was looking back at her.

"Sarah," he replied in the same tone, eyes twinkling with amusement.

"I was wondering," she started hesitantly, "well, I mean, what with you being fae and all…"

Jareth tensed and said, "Excuse me?"

"What?" Sarah said, noticing how tight his face had gotten. Oh-oh, she thought.

"What did you just call me?" He said in a deceptively calm voice.

"Um… a fae?" Sarah tried, wondering what the problem with that was.

Jareth sat up briskly and Sarah shifted to sit up next to him. He was glaring at her and said, "Whoever said I was a fae?"

"Well, no one, I just assumed-"

"Oh, you assumed, did you?" Jareth said, still scowling at her. "You just assumed that I'm a fae, because what? Because I look the way I do? Because I'm royalty? I'm not some bloody fairy!" By now he was seething.

"I, um, I'm sorry, Jareth, I didn't realise…" she trailed, noticing his glare if death was not lessening.

"Why would you assume I am one of them, one of those creatures?" He demanded, folding his arms.

"Well, I don't know," Sarah said. "I guess I just spent so long reading about them as a kid, and then meeting you…"

"I suppose you thought there were courts somewhere that you just had not met yet," he sneered.

Sarah bristled at that (partly because that was exactly what she had thought but was too embarrassed now to admit it) and said, "Now look here, you have never once told me what you are, what was I supposed to think?"

"I have, you know I am the Goblin King!" He protested.

"Yes I know that, but what does that make you, what species?" At his increasingly outraged expression she continued, "I mean, are you a human but with powers, or-" she grasped around, trying to think of something else, "or, or, oh I don't know, what?"

"I am the Goblin King," he told her coldly.

"Yes, but what does that make you?" She asked in a frustrated tone.

"The king of the goblins," he said unhelpfully. "A goblin."

Sarah forgot her anger for a moment and stared at him. "Really?"

He looked down his nose at her and replied, "Yes, originally. Is there a problem with that?"

"No no," she said quickly, "No problem."

They were silent for a moment before she said, "It's just that you don't look like a goblin-"

"I did say originally," he said, frowning at her.

"Oh, right." They were quiet again, with Jareth tensed and sitting stiffly in the bed with his arms folded, and Sarah fiddling with the sheets wrapped around her. She did not know what to say now. Really, she wanted to question him further, but she did not think he was really in the mood for twenty questions. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and noticed Jareth's expression. It was still steely, still angry, but there was something in his eyes that told her he was a little hurt. Offended would probably be a better description, but she knew that already.

"Jareth," she said quietly, looking at him. He said nothing and just grunted a little in response. She sighed and moved closer to him. "I'm sorry." There was a tiny flicker in his expression, but apparently he was going to be stubborn today. "I'm sorry I assumed such a stupid thing. It was wrong of me."

He glanced over at her and said, "It was."

She edged a bit closer and bit her lip, looking up at him through her eyelashes. "I don't know what I was thinking. I am really sorry."

His mouth pursed and she could tell he was giving in. Inside she thanked her mother for pulling that trick on her father so often when she was little. Usually she did not approve of manipulating one's husband like this, but it wasn't like Sarah was sleeping with someone else and trying to cover it up like her mother had been.

"How can I make it up to you?" She purred, softly trailing her fingers over his arm.

Now his mouth quirked, and he raised one eyebrow at her as he turned to her slyly. "Well now, let me think…"

Make-up sex, Sarah decided, was totally worth the argument.

Later he would ask her what her original question had been. Sarah waved it off as nothing, thinking that perhaps it would be better to return to the topic of children another time.

* * *

I was debating whether to publish this or a different one, but I decided I wasn't happy with the other one and changed my mind... 

This was inspired by a review by someone calling themselves Nette who did not leave a way to contact them. Whoever said Jareth was a fae? I will probably pick up on this issue in a later chapter, too.

You may disagree, however, but I will not know unless you tell me. That's what reviews are for.

Also, thanks to everyone who has reviewed/put this on alert/favourited this. It's nice to know I'm not just writing this all in vain.


	10. A Cat By Any Other Name

**A Cat By Any Other Name**

Sarah had complained that she was getting lonely sometimes. Jareth, jumping into defensive mode, had told her that he couldn't possibly spend all his time with her, and that he was a king with certain duties, but if she wanted a quickie he had some free time right now, so...

After he had recovered from the whack around the head she had given him, he asked her what she meant.

"I mean I want a pet or something," she said, rolling her eyes.

"A pet?" He asked, one eyebrow rising. "Don't the goblins count?"

"No, Jareth," she sighed, looking heavenward. "Something I can love and look after. Like Merlin, my old dog."

"Oh," Jareth said, vaguely remembering the dog. "I'll see what I can do."

Two weeks later, Jareth was sure he had the right thing. He put the animal in their bedroom and went in search of Sarah. He found her wandering through the ponds at one side of the castle watching one of the water fountains with a certain amount of disbelieving fascination. 

"Sarah," he said as he approached.

She didn't take her eyes off the fountain as she said, "Has this water always gone upwards?"

"Hmm?" He followed her gaze. "Oh, yes, of course it has. Never mind that though; I have a gift for you," he said proudly.

"Oh?" He finally got her attention and she turned looking intrigued with a smile quirking one side of her mouth.

"Come with me," he said, taking her arm. He pulled her along with him and they walked along the path between the ponds, except that now it was not the path in the ponds, it was the hallway outside their bedroom.

Sarah looked at him curiously and asked, "Am I in the mood for this 'gift?'"

"It is not that kind of gift," he said, before smiling with his best seductive smile and adding, "But maybe later."

Sarah rolled her eyes and said, "So…? I presume whatever it is is inside?"

Jareth nodded once, supremely pleased with himself.

Sarah shook her head in an indulgent way and opened the door. She peered around the door but did not see anything and moved in further. She glanced around the room, still not seeing anything, and started to turn to Jareth when she saw it. There was a dark flash of something as it went under the bed, not making one sound on its way. Sarah shrieked, backing out as quickly as she could and closing the door behind her.

"What the- what is that?" She said, staring at her husband, who was looking slightly less cocky about his 'gift.' 

"It's a cat. You said you wanted a pet," he said, frowning in confusion. What was the problem?

"Jareth!" She exclaimed. "That is not a cat!"

Jareth thought about it for a moment and then said, "No, no that is a cat. I have seen them before in the human world."

"Trust me, there is no way that was a cat," Sarah said. "Where did you even get it from?"

"Humans have pounds, do they not, where they keep animals to be bought as pets. I left adequate payment," he said. Although it could be argued two sandwiches and a bottle of Goblin Toe were hardly adequate payment, but by the time the bottle was finished, no one would care anyway.

"You got that thing from a pound?" Sarah asked. She frowned, a suspicion entering her head. "This pound, did it have a lot of different kinds of animals, in huge cages, almost like an exhibition?"

"Yes," he said, shifting a little.

"Jareth!" She said, hitting his arm. If she had been anyone but his wife right then, she would have found herself in the Bog of Eternal Stench before her hand could have even connected with his arm. As it was he loved her, so he was willing to overlook this treatment of his person. If anything, because he didn't want to share a bed with someone who smelt that much. "You got it from a zoo!"

"Zoo, pound; what's the difference?" He said in a tone that suggested he didn't care.

"Animals in zoos are wild, that's what!" She rubbed her face in frustration and said, "It's a vicious predator!"

"It didn't seem very vicious to me," Jareth said, thinking back. It had just stared up at him and let him take it back with him. He thought it was quite adorable, not that he would ever let Sarah know he had thoughts like that. A man had to have his pride. He went to open the door but Sarah stopped him with a hand on his arm and a squeal.

"What if it gets out?" She asked.

"Sarah, it will be fine." She didn't look convinced, so he said, "Trust me." She still looked dubious but she let go of him and stood back, looking worried, biting her lip a little. He smiled at her and leaned over to give her a quick kiss before he opened the door again.

He looked inside, searching for the creature. He moved around the bed, and there it was, stretching out on the rug and dozing, or at least it was until it heard him. It looked up at him and studied him for a moment before getting up to stare at him better. He smiled at it, holding out a hand and calling it over. "Here kitty kitty," he murmured softly. It moved towards him warily and sniffed his hand, before deciding he was worthy to touch it. Jareth scratched it behind the ears and looked up to the door where Sarah was cautiously peering in. He smiled at her encouragingly and she moved in, looking at the animal.

Now that she had gotten over her initial panic, she could see what it was. "It's a panther, Jareth."

He frowned at the animal who was now claiming the bed as its own by rubbing its head, and therefore its scent, all over the bedpost. "I thought panthers were bigger than this. Are you sure, because this is the same size as a house cat, I am certain."

"It's a cub; a baby. It's small now, but it's going to get bigger," Sarah said, nervously watching the animal.

"Define bigger," Jareth said.

"About this tall," she said, motioning about half way up her thigh, "And this long, head to tail," spreading her arms wide.

"Hmm," Jareth said. "Well, we have a big castle, I do not see the a problem."

"It will be when it starts hunting the goblins for a midnight snack," she pointed out.

"Ah," Jareth said, looking at the cub who was rolling on its back now, chasing its tail. He could see how the tail could very easily become a goblin when it was fully grown. "You may have a point there." It was a bit impractical to have a pet that would most likely eat ones subjects. Although it would be an alternative threat to the Bog of Eternal Stench…

"And besides, I think the zoo might miss it, no matter how much payment you left," Sarah pressed.

"Fine," Jareth grumbled. "I'll take it back. I just wanted to get you a pet."

"I appreciate it, really I do, but I don't think a panther was the way to go."

Jareth stood and took hold of the cub by the scruff of its neck. It was amazing just how many things could be held by the scruff of their necks, Jareth noted; panther cubs, goblins, children… The cub, for its part, was so surprised to have been lifted like this by anything other than its mother that it completely forgot to be mad about it. "I will be back in a moment," Jareth said, and faded, taking the cub with him, who chose that moment to mewl pathetically.

Sarah sighed and sat on the bed. She hoped it had not been there too long, or she would have to start looking for a different kind of gift in the room. Jareth reappeared sitting on the bed beside her and flopped backwards, lying down. She lay down beside him, curling up and resting her head on his chest as one of his arms wrapped around her.

"What kind of pet would you like then?" He asked.

She pretended to think about it, but she already knew. "A dog?" Her tone was hopeful.

"I do not really like dogs," Jareth said, wrinkling his nose.

"What? How can you not like dogs?"

"I just don't. They are gullible idiots."

"No," Sarah said disbelievingly. "How can you say that? Dogs are lovely. They're loyal, friendly, playful; what's not to like?"

"Oh please," Jareth said, rolling his eyes. "They are merely too stupid to think of you as anything but a friend if you feed them enough. No other animal on the earth would chase after a stick just because you threw it for them, and they definitely would not be so happy about it."

"Oh, so I guess that means you prefer cats?" She asked with looking up at him with raised eyebrows.

"Of course, how could anyone not?" He said. "There is a sense of regal-ness about them, they are unconcerned by anything, there is a lot less exercise involved and they can take care of themselves."

"They're selfish creatures," Sarah said dismissively.

"Oh really?" He asked.

"They only care about themselves and the only reason why they tolerate people is to get a stroke and some food. They're happy to just lie on the furniture and get their hair everywhere, not doing anything."

"What is wrong with that?" Jareth said.

Sarah sighed and snuggled in closer to him. "I guess I can see why you like them; they're lot like you."

Jareth frowned, not sure whether to be offended or not.

They were silent for a moment and Jareth kissed the top of her head. "Do you really want a dog?"

"It would be nice," Sarah admitted.

Jareth sighed. "Very well; I will look into it."

"Preferably nothing from the zoo this time." She earned a swat for that.

A few days later Jareth found her overseeing a strange game of battleship with the goblins, which involved actual goblins as the battleships. "Sarah," he said coming behind up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist. "I think this time I have done it."

She leaned back into him and softly said, "Oh?"

"Come and see," he replied, pulling away from her.

She took a deep breath, stealing herself against the worst. She left the goblins to it and followed her husband to their bedroom again.

"Are you sure it's a dog?" She asked, looking worriedly at the closed door.

"Do not doubt me," he said. "Just open the door."

She took another deep breath and did as she was told. There sitting on the bed was a fox kit, blinking confusedly at its surroundings. It was a rusty brown colour that promised to grow redder with age and it was absolutely adorable. It reminded her a little of Sir Didymus. And to be fair, Sarah thought, it was a member of the canine family. At least, she was fairly certain it was. She looked at her husband who, to an outsider looked fairly menacing with his arms folded but she knew he was anxious to hear the verdict. 

"Should I ask where you got it from?"

Jareth said, "I am sure it was a pound of some kind."

Probably a rescue centre, Sarah thought to herself. Ah well, it was better than a panther. She put Jareth out of his misery and gave him a kiss, promising, "I'll give you a proper thank you tonight."

Jareth grinned. Putting up with the dog was so worth it.

* * *

Yay they have a pet! I think the kit is a boy, so I want name suggestions, please! Of course, if you think of a really good girl's name for it it could end up being a girl. I vaguely have a name in mind, but if you think up something better…

There was a very warm response to the last chapter, so thank you very much! It seems there are lot of people who share my scepticism of Jareth being a fae, or at least, are open to other possibilities.

As always, let me know what you think, because if you don't, how am I supposed to improve?


	11. Foxtrot

**Foxtrot**

Jareth watched his wife sitting on the bed and staring at the fox, who was in turn staring at a piece of lint floating around the room.

"What are you doing?" He asked her, making her start.

"Oh, hey," she said, smiling at him. "I was just trying to think of a name for him."

Jareth grinned. Now here was something he actually knew about. He was good at naming things. Just take some of the goblins, for example. There was Luerk, Pug, Pilch and Volbe, not to mention Bakarbobs Karnobissica. All fine names, to be sure. He had even spoken to Toby on this matter and found out some good dog names, so all in all, he was fairly confidant in his abilities. "Excellent," he replied. "I have been thinking of some names myself."

"Oh?" Sarah was not sure whether to be worried or amused. She settled for half way between both. "Okay, hit me." When Jareth frowned and opened his mouth unsurely she said, "No, I mean, tell me," with a roll of her eyes.

"Oh." Humans were odd sometimes. Why say 'hit me,' when they did not actually wish to be hit? That was just asking for trouble. Putting that aside, he said proudly, "Rover."

Sarah coughed slightly, almost seeming to choke and she repeated, "Rover?"

"Rover is a fine dog's name," Jareth said.

"It's a bit cliché," Sarah said, trying not to laugh. "And I've told you before, it's not a dog."

"I see," Jareth said with a frown. "What about Bingo?" Sarah raised her eyebrows at him and he continued, "Pooch?"

"Where did you even here those names?" Sarah asked with a laugh.

Jareth hesitated before he said, "I may have mentioned to Toby that we now have a dog…"

"You asked for Toby's advice?" She asked, her surprise showing. Then something else occurred to her. "He's going to want to come and see it now…"

"That could be arranged," Jareth said, moving to sit beside her. He patted the fox on the head. "He was very excited when I told him about it. He said that dogs are his favourite animal."

"For the last time, it's not a dog!" Sarah said, rolling her eyes.

"If it is not a dog, then what is it?" He said, clearly not believing her. If it looked like a dog, walked like a dog and sounded like a dog…

"It's a fox," she said. "I told you that before."

He frowned. "When?" He asked suspiciously.

"Just after we first got it," She told him. At his blank look she continued, "You know, just before we went to bed, and you started kissing my neck and I said then, and you said, 'Oh really…'" She looked at him and said, "Is this ringing any bells?"

'Hmm, the bit about kissing your neck does…" He said thoughtfully. She sighed and he said, "Really, Sarah, you do not expect me to pay attention to what you are saying when-" He abruptly cut off, seeing the sharp look in her eye. "Ah, I mean… My mind was on other things…"

"Obviously," she tutted. Mentally she filed away the fact that Jareth did not listen to her when otherwise engaged, knowing that at some point that would come in useful.

"Well what names did you have in mind?" He asked, changing the subject.

Sarah thought about arguing her point, but she decided to let it go. For now. She mulled the question over in her mind, looking at the kit. It really did remind her of a smaller version of Sir Didymus. Little Didymus, she thought in amusement. But no. "How about Sir Bedivere?" She said, with a small smile.

Jareth frowned. "Was that not a ship?"

Sarah raised an eyebrow and said, "He was a knight of the round table…"

"Oh. I do not think Sir Bedivere is really fitting for a do- a fox." Her eyes narrowed at the mistake he nearly made, but he pretended not to notice.

"Okay… What about Arthur?"

"What about Arthur?"

"For a name, for the fox," she sighed.

"As in King Arthur?" He asked. She nodded and he said, "I am not sure naming a fox after a royal is such a good idea."

Sarah sighed and looked at the fox. It had yawned most adorably a moment ago and just curled up. She leaned back against her husband, letting his arms encircle her. "Jareth?"

She felt the rumble of his response in his chest. "Hmm?"

"Are you sure it's a boy?"

"I did not say it was a boy," he replied.

She turned to face him and said, "What?"

"I did not say it was a boy. How am I supposed to know?" He quirked one brow at her.

"You mean it could be Guinevere and not Arthur?"

"Please stop with the knights of the round table names. It is not going to happen," he said resolutely.

Sarah pouted and said, "I think my point still stands. We should find out and see if it's a boy or a girl."

"How do you propose we do that?" He folded his arms, raising both eyebrows this time.

"Well," she motioned towards it, "have a look."

Jareth bristled. "I sincerely hope you are not suggesting what I think you are suggesting." At her silence he said, "I am a king. I do not 'look' at animals intimate areas to see what gender they are!"

"If you don't then I could call it Jezebel," she pointed out. He scowl deepened but he remained unmoved. "Or perhaps I'll go for a non-gender specific name, like… Joey."

"Is that not a name for a kangaroo?"

She let out a frustrated sigh and said, "How can you be so clueless about some things and yet you know random things like that?"

"I am not clueless," he said defensively.

She pointed a finger at the fox. "You still think that's a dog!"

"It looks like a dog to me." He did not even bother trying to deny it.

"It's a fox!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms up in frustration. "I know they look similar to dogs, but trust me, it's a fox."

"Then why call it a name for a kangaroo?" Jareth asked, feeling utterly lost.

Sarah growled in frustration. "Okay, fine. How about you look at it and tell me the first name that comes to mind," Sarah suggested.

He looked round her at the fox, which had rolled over slightly and was kicking its leg out in its sleep. "Red," he said.

Sarah crumpled slightly, letting out a moan. "God help us when we have kids," Sarah muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose.

Jareth frowned for a moment thinking, why would we have infant goats? Then he realised and said haughtily, "Please. Our children will have fine, noble names befitting of their royal status."

"Like Jareth?" Sarah said, her voice perfectly innocent. Too innocent…

"What is wrong with Jareth?" He demanded to know.

"I often ask myself the same thing," Sarah commented dryly, before smiling at him. "There's nothing wrong with it, it's just, well, royal names where I'm from are names like Elizabeth, or Charles, or Louis…" She grinned at the fox and said, "What about Louis?"

"No," Jareth said. "I'll have you know that Jareth is a very strong name."

"Yes dear," Sarah replied, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

"And," Jareth continued, his eyes narrowing on his wife, "Our son, should we have one, will be named Jareth the Second." That got Sarah's attention. She stared at him with wide eyes, stunned into silence. "After myself, of course."

"You can't honestly think that we'll call our son 'Jareth the Second?'" She said in a strained voice.

He regarded her for a moment before answering, "Of course not." She sighed with relief. "We will just call him Jareth. Everyone else will be required to address him as Jareth the Second."

"Jareth!"

"Yes?"

She glared at him. "We are not going to name our son Jareth the Second!"

"Why not?" He said, tone low and dangerous. Sarah was not quelled, though.

"Because that would just be mean!"

"Mean? In what way?" He pressed, folding his arms.

Sarah and stood to face him. "You can stop that right now. We haven't even had a child yet, let alone a son, so why are we even talking about this?"

"You were the one who said-"

"I know what I said!" She snapped. She took a few deep, calming breaths and said, "All I mean is that we don't need to worry about naming our children yet, since we haven't had any, so this argument is pointless right now." Jareth quirked a brow, indicating for her to continue. "What I'm saying is, right now we should worry about naming our pet and we pick this argument back up if and/or when we have children. Agreed?"

Jareth pursed his lips as he mulled it over. "Agreed," he finally said.

She sighed, feeling very weary. "We still don't know if it's a boy or a girl," she pointed out.

"I told you-"

"Yes, I know," she said, cutting him off. "Fine, I'll do it."

She edged over to the fox, hesitant to wake it when it looked so peaceful… She moved its leg gently, peering at the space in between.

"Well?"

She huffed. "Give me a chance!" She looked carefully and declared, "It's a boy."

"Are you sure?" Jareth asked, glancing over her shoulder, despite his earlier assertions.

"Yep," she replied. "Definitely a boy. That's that settled, at least."

"Name?" Jareth prompted.

Sarah scooted back to lean against him and looked at the small fox, who was blinking wearily around, no doubt wondering what had just been touching him. "How about Artemis? Arty for short."

"Artemis was a Greek goddess," Jareth pointed out.

"Okay, seriously. Where are you getting all this random information?" She twisted slightly in her husband's arms to look up at him.

Jareth said, "Since it has now been established that the do- fox is indeed male, do you not think it would be inappropriate to name it so?"

Sarah frowned, noticing he had not answered the question – whether deliberately or not – but said, "I was thinking Artemis Fowl, actually."

"Who?"

"Finally, something you don't know," she muttered, turning away from him slightly. "What about Tod?" She looked back at Jareth who raised a brow. "For the fox, Tod."

"Oh." Jareth looked at the fox and said after a moment's consideration, "I do not think Tod suits it."

"Obviously you've never seen the Fox and the Hound," Sarah commented, before quickly adding at her husband's confused look, "Never mind. Your turn."

Jareth sighed. This was turning out to be harder than he thought. "Toby?"

"We can't call our pet Toby," Sarah said, rolling her eyes. "For one thing it would get really confusing." She hummed a moment before saying, "Bootsy?"

"If you think I am going to call our pet such a ridiculous name you are sorely mistaken," Jareth informed her. She pouted slightly, but let it go. "Sebastian?" Jareth added.

She wrinkled her nose. "It's not much of a pets name… Jude?"

Jareth considered it and finally said, "I don't think so. What about Maximillian?"

Sarah laughed and said, "It's a bit of a mouthful. How about Max?"

"Max," Jareth said thoughtfully. "Max…"

"Are we actually agreeing on a name?" Sarah said in mock disbelief.

"You know, I believe we are," Jareth said, smiling at her.

She sighed happily and looked at the fox. "Max…"

Max yawned and stood, padding his way over to her and resting his head on her knee. She scratched him behind the ear, melting inside at the absolute adorableness of him.

Jareth kissed her cheek and stood, stretching. "Well, I am glad we have that sorted."

Sarah smiled and said, "Now all we have to do is train him."

Jareth paused and said, "Train?"

"Yeah, like we need to teach him not to do his business indoors, how to fetch, sit, stay, that sort of thing." Sarah looked around at him. "It'll be fun!"

Jareth inwardly groaned. Should have kept the panther.

* * *

Incredibly sorry about the lateness. It would have been out earlier if not for two things. One was that I was attempting to write a chapter for Easter, but it really was not doing what I wanted it to. It started out okay, but it was getting so long (think of the Christmas chapters earlier on…) that I was trying to cut down on what was being written and it's really suffered for it. I've abandoned it for now, but hopefully, if this is still going next year, I can have it posted then, maybe. Or maybe I'll carry on working on it and you'll just have a late Easter present next week. The other reason was university work. There was a lot of it, and still is. I'm trying to get on top of it all, but Easter eggs were distracting me. And crème eggs. I have no idea whether you have those in America-land, but they are an essential part of Easter here and bring me no greater joy. I think it's all the sugar. I hear you have marshmallow things called Peeps – good for you. You have fluffy sugary things, I'll have runny sugary things encased in chocolate…

Other than that, thank you to everyone who suggested a name. I tried to include them all here, so I'm incredibly sorry if I missed one. Max kind of won with two votes. I was going to go for Jake, but meh. No one suggested it, so never mind.

There are a few references, for lack of a better word, that I picked up from various places. If something looks familiar, that might be why. Also, the goblins names (apart from Volbe remember Volbe? Anyone?) were ones I got from the Wikipedia entry on the Labyrinth.

And finally, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. As always, please take the time to review as I'd like to know what you think, even if you thought it could be better.


	12. The Hunt

**The Hunt**

The Labyrinth was eerily quiet that morning. No, Sarah thought, revising the statement. It was not that it was quiet; there was an absence of sound. All the usual noise, the hustle and bustle of the city, seemed to have disappeared. She looked out the window overlooking the city and noticed that there seemed to be a distinct lack of goblins. Which begged the question; where was everyone?

Jareth had disappeared while she had been getting dressed, so patting Max's head on her way past and telling him to stay (not that he understood the command yet), she made her way to the throne room.

As she approached the room, she could hear voices. Many, many voices. She mused that this would usually be the point where someone told her she was insane, but thankfully when she rounded the corner she saw that the voices belonged to people. Well, people in a loose sense of the word… It seemed that there was quite possibly the entire population of the Labyrinth compressed into the room. She blinked at them before edging towards the throne where her husband sat.

"Um, Jareth?" He looked up at her and broke into a grin.

"Ah, there you are. Good, we are all here then. We can start."

"Start what?" She asked, gazing out at all the people – no, creatures squashed into the room. She waved over at Ludo, easily spotted due to his size, and Sir Didymus sat upon his shoulder. She imagined Hoggle was somewhere at Ludo's feet.

Jareth stood and clapped his hands together, gaining the attention of the room. "Welcome," he said. "Welcome to the thirty-eighth annual hunt." He paused, ginning as a cheer came from the crowd. "I hope you are all prepared…" there were jeers, and several goblins and various other beings lifted baskets and nets. "Good," Jareth said, looking satisfied. "In that case, I will keep you no further. I will remind you; be vigilant. We cannot afford to have one escape, or need I remind you of the last time that happened?" Clearly he did not, as there were shudders from the crowd and nods of determination. "Very well. I declare the hunt…" he paused, this time for dramatic effect, "begun!"

There was another cheer and the occupants started to funnel out of all exits. Slowly, they left until there were only a few stragglers, Jareth and Sarah.

"Jareth?" Sarah said, now feeling very confused.

"Yes, dearest?" He sat back down in his throne, one foot up and resting his head on his hand and his elbow on his knee.

"What's going on?"

"Oh, did I not tell you?" He looked vaguely surprised and motioned her closer. She sat in the space and leaned against his leg, watching him and waiting for him to continue. "Every year we have a hunt during which all the citizens of the Labyrinth scour it to search for the infestation," he explained.

"Infestation?" She repeated in confusion. "Of what? What are you hunting?"

"Eggs," he said grimly.

"Eggs," she said, raising a brow.

"Indeed."

When he did not continue, she said, "Why are you hunting eggs?"

"Because if we do not find them all before the end of today tomorrow they will start hatching. And once they start hatching there will be no end to our problems…" He said darkly.

"Okay," Sarah said slowly. "What are they?"

"Terrors," he muttered, glaring across the room. "Evil little things that breed uncontrollably and destroy everything, eating everything, digging everywhere…!"

"So I take it they're bad," Sarah said, starting to feel worried. "How exactly did they get here then?"

Jareth sighed. "It always happens, every year. No matter how many defences I put up, it always manages to get in. It lays its eggs all over the place and we have to search for the things, making sure we do not miss even one; the effects can be disastrous."

"Jareth," Sarah said in an exasperated tone, "what are they?"

He blinked and looked at her, before saying disgustedly, "Rabbits."

Sarah couldn't help but laugh as she said, "Oh come on. Rabbits? Rabbits don't even hatch from eggs!"

He frowned and said, "Maybe not in your world, but here they most certainly do."

Sarah shook her head. Who had ever heard of a rabbit that laid eggs? Sure, Spring was a time for all the baby animals to come out, but rabbits with eggs… She paused, and the dots started to join in her head. "Wait," she said slowly in a suspicious tone, "do you mean the Easter Bunny?"

"I have heard it called that, yes," Jareth said, conceding the point.

"You're literally hunting the Easter Bunny's eggs, then?" Sarah said, trying to wrap her head around the concept.

"I cannot just let them breed here," he said, clenching a hand. "For years it came to the Labyrinth, leaving its offspring only for them to eat everything and leave only when there was nothing left… So, nearly forty years ago I decided enough was enough, and we started to hunt them."

"I see… And what happens to them after you've hunted them all out?" She asked.

Jareth shrugged and said, "We toss them out of the Labyrinth. Outside our walls the fabric of reality is flimsy at best. I presume they fall into another reality, after their mother."

He motioned for her to stand and got up himself, his clothes changing somewhere between sitting and standing. Now he was dressed in sturdy clothes, though still of the tight, revealing variety. He held out a hand to her, a smirk in his eyes and said, "Now then, my dear Queen. How do you feel about going for your very first hunt?"

She laughed and smiled, taking his hand and noticing her own clothes changing (thankfully not as revealing as her husband's) and said, "I think I'd like that."

AA

So far as Sarah could tell, it was chaos. There was a mad run around as no house was left un-searched, no chicken left alone (though Sarah had a suspicion the goblins just had a weird fixation with bothering chickens) and no stone left unturned. It seemed that most of the residents of the Labyrinth started within the city and moved out into the Labyrinth after.

Chaos it may be, but it was incredibly fun chaos.

Jareth was not participating. Rather, he watched and if he spotted one of the eggs, he pointed them out to whoever was closest. When Sarah asked him why he was not gathering eggs too, he had said it would not be fair, due to the competition.

"There's a competition?" Sarah had asked.

"But of course," Jareth had replied. "Why do you think they are so enthusiastic?"

She had tried to find out what the prize was, but he had just smirked and told her that she would find out in due time. He had also pointed out that as Queen she could not win the prize, though she was welcome to carry on hunting. He then smirked at her basket and told her that there was not much chance of her winning anyway, if that was all she had to show for her efforts so far.

Sarah had bristled at that; she had three eggs at that point which she had thought reasonable, considering her competitors had much more experience than she. Jareth had just laughed and gone back to strolling through the streets.

She still only had five eggs. She looked into the basket Jareth had given her and sighed. Perhaps she would just be better observing like Jareth was.

It was not as though the eggs were difficult to spot either, she though to herself ruefully. True to form, the Easter Bunny's eggs were brightly coloured, garish and sometimes patterned, standing out against the palette of browns and greens that made up the city. It would probably be harder to spot them outside the city, but for now they were incredibly misplaced. The only reason she could come up with to her lack of success was that everyone else was much more practised.

"Sarah!" She turned and saw Hoggle heading towards her.

"Hoggle," she said with a smile.

"How are you finding the hunting?" Hoggle asked, his own basket in front of him.

"Okay, but I'm not having much luck," she said with a sigh. "I've only got five eggs." She peered into his basket and asked, "How many do you have?"

"Only eighteen at the moment, but there's a goblin over there with twelve at least and he hasn't been paying attention to his basket for a while…" Hoggle eyed up the goblin who was attempting to reach into the guttering on a house while his basket stayed at his feet.

"Hoggle," Sarah said in an admonishing tone. "That's cheating."

Hoggle chuckled and said, "No wonder you only have five."

Before Sarah could question him, Hoggle let out a groan and shouted, "Them's mine! I had my eye on them first!" Sarah turned and saw a firey making off with the goblin's basket, having kicked the box out from under its feet and leaving it hanging there on the guttering.

"Great, now I'm going to have to find someone else to pinch 'em off," Hoggle muttered.

"Am I missing something?" Sarah said, but Hoggle was already wandering off, eyeing up the other creatures surrounding him.

"My lady!" She turned and saw Sir Didymus on Ambrosias with Ludo following behind.

"Sarah!" Ludo said happily, stooping down and swallowing her in a hug when he was close enough.

"Hi Ludo," she said, hugging him back. "How are you?"

"Good," Ludo said with a dopey smile. "I gots nine eggs!"

Mentally Sarah berated herself. Even Ludo was better than her at this. "Well done Ludo," She said. "How about you, Sir Didymus?"

"I hast twenty-three," Sir Didymus said proudly, pointing his nose in the air with a smug smile. "And I have not resorted to the under-hand tricks of my fellows!"

"I've only got five," Sarah said mournfully.

"Persevere, my lady," Sir Didymus said encouragingly.

"I think I'm missing something about this game," Sarah said, looking about. Many of the other creatures had baskets full of eggs, and she said, "Everyone else seems to be doing so much better…"

"They rely on trickery to win this game," Sir Didymus said.

"What sort of trickery?"

"They steal from one another whilst their backs are turned, they hide eggs away in secret places to reclaim later, which is a rather foolish tactic as they are followed and have the eggs stolen from them anyway," Sir Didymus explained with a sigh. "I do not believe this game has been played fairly once since its creation."

"Oh," Sarah said with dawning understanding. "That's what he meant… Everybody cheats in this game, so playing fairly doesn't get you very far."

"But one does keep one's integrity," Sir Didymus pointed out. "I believe that is far more important."

Sarah smiled at him. "You may be right. Has anyone tried to steal eggs from you yet?"

"Twice, and from Sir Ludo, once," he said. "Sir Ludo fell on his opponent however, forcing the cad to give up his prize. I myself battled the two who dared to steal from myself, and overcame both adversaries easily."

"No one's tried to steal from me yet," Sarah said, privately thinking they must believe it was not worth it.

"No one would dare steal from the Goblin Queen, my lady!" Sir Didymus said with a smile. "They know better."

She laughed and said, "Ah well. There's not much point to my hunting anyway. Do you two want help?"

"We were trying to decide where to search next," Sir Didymus said. "I wish to search around the Bog, but my brother complains of a mysterious odour there which I have yet to smell."

"Smell bad," Ludo interjected, looking miserable at the suggestion.

"How about you go over to the Bog and me and Ludo will meet you in the forest?" Sarah suggested.

"A wonderful suggestion, my lady. I do not expect to find many eggs there; There are never usually that many around the Bog," Sir Didymus said. "Come, Ambrosias, to the Bog!" Sarah could have sworn she saw the dog sighing in resignation before turning and heading out of the city, but that would be silly… right? She shook her head.

"Come on Ludo," Sarah said with a smile, taking the great beast's hand. "Let's go hunting."

AA

Sarah and Ludo explored the forest, Ludo getting eggs from high in the trees and Sarah stooping down into holes and finding some there. Sir Didymus joined them about midday, and they moved through the Labyrinth in their search.

They met Hoggle in the hedge section, and he deigned to join them. It felt a bit like old times, she thought to herself. Before she was married, back when she had been trying to get the castle at the centre of the Labyrinth. She couldn't stop the soft smiles on her face and she would not have wanted to.

Jareth met them once briefly, stealing a kiss from Sarah before grinning and vanishing off somewhere, no doubt to torture some poor soul. Sarah had sighed happily, causing Hoggle to roll his eyes and stomp off. She caught up with him and took his hand, squeezing it and walking with him. He cheered up after a while, especially when Sarah told him that he, Sir Didymus and Ludo might as well have her eggs (fifteen now) since it wasn't like she could win anyway.

They were in the stone section when a spindly bird-like creature tried to steal an egg from Hoggle. It would have managed it too, if not for the fact that Sarah had been standing right behind it when it dipped its long beak over Hoggle's shoulder into the basket. Sarah had surprised it, causing the egg to pop out, like a piece of chicken from chopsticks, and fly through the air. Both Hoggle and the bird leapt up, pushing each other out of the way to try and catch the airborne egg. It was all rather comical to watch, Sarah thought, especially when Ludo ended up catching it in his basket. The bird had eyed Ludo warily before evidently deciding it was not worth it and scuttling away.

"Thanks," Hoggle said to Ludo, holding out a hand to reclaim his egg.

"Nuh uh," Ludo said, shaking his head. "I caught it, mine."

"What?" Hoggle said, stamping his foot. "It's mine, give it back!"

Ludo grinned and shook his head again. Sarah could tell he was only teasing Hoggle, but the dwarf seemed to be getting quite irate.

"You can't just take it 'cause of dumb luck!" Hoggle argued. "I found that on my own, fair and square, now give it back!"

Ludo appeared to consider it before eventually handing the egg back. Hoggle quickly took it back, holding it close and grumbling. Ludo's laughter rumbled off the stone walls, joined by Sir Didymus' and Sarah's, and Hoggle realised they were joking with him. He grumbled some more, but there was less vehemence in it now, and soon they were back to laughing and joking.

The rest of the day was spent happily enough, only having to defend their eggs from others three times. Eventually, the light started to fade and a horn sounded from the direction of the castle.

"Better be getting back, then," Hoggle said.

Sarah sighed. They had made it all the way to the outer gates of the Labyrinth and she was not relishing the idea of having to traipse all the way back through again. "Isn't there a short cut?" She asked, looking at them imploringly.

"Of course," Hoggle replied, giving her a look. "You just need to know where."

Sarah remembered a boy a while back who had found a short cut and sighed to herself. Perhaps it had been a matter of her not asking the right questions again that she had never found any.

Hoggle led the way through a wall and she soon found they were on a pretty much direct root to the castle. This would have made things so much easier, she mused to herself. She watched as Sir Didymus, riding his 'noble steed,' spoke animatedly to Hoggle about jousting, a pastime he did not often get to indulge in, while Hoggle nodded absently. Sarah nearly tripped over, but Ludo caught her and righted her with a smile. She grinned back. No, she thought; if I had not taken the route I did I would not have the friends I have today. I would not be where I am today. She smiled, knowing she would not trade them for the world.

Once they were back in the castle they made their way up to the throne room along with all the other residents of the Labyrinth. Sarah smiled at her friends as they packed themselves into the room.

"Good luck!" She said with a grin, as they moved over to a booth to deposit their eggs.

She made her way up to the throne where her husband sat. He grinned at her and made space for her to sit with him.

"Did you enjoy yourself?" He asked, pulling her close.

"Yes," she said, smiling warmly. "It was really nice to just be with my friends."

"I'm glad," he told her. "Although I am rather jealous."

One side of her mouth quirked into a smile and she said, "Oh?"

"You spent the entire day with them and not me," he said, raising his brows.

She laughed and said, "Considering I usually spend all my time with you, one day is not a lot. Plus I'll make it up to you later…"

He smirked and said, "I will hold you to that, my dear."

She laughed lightly and then gestured to the inhabitants of the Labyrinth that were gathering and said, "So, what happens now?"

He glanced over them and said, "The eggs are collected and counted for each person, whereupon we have the post-hunt celebrations and I announce this year's winner."

"Post-hunt celebrations sound fun," Sarah said with a smile.

"Indeed. Though some of the dancing leaves a lot to be desired."

AA

Sarah found that the eggs were counted by using a series of complicated weights and pulleys bought together in a mechanism she did not quite understand. There seemed to be little point to it all, bar the very end, where as each egg dropped softly down it nudged a marker, counting off the eggs. It did this in a tally system, and each competitor's name was written at the start of the parchment and the results could then be taken away. It took a while to process, but Sarah could guess why it was used. The goblins were not exactly reliable in their counting.

Once the results were taken, Jareth himself would conclude the winner. He told Sarah it was only fair, since he was the only one not taking part. "Unless, of course, you want to help me?" He had added.

"Tempting, but no," Sarah had told him sweetly. "Have fun, though."

Jareth had frowned, but did not bother to argue. Sarah left him to it and found her friends once more, enjoying the variety of foods set out for their guests to enjoy.

The goblin band was… interesting, to say the least. The first time she had heard them, Sarah had been surprised to find that interesting was not necessarily bad. Their instruments were unconventional, but it appeared the goblins had music in their hearts and that managed to win out over the fact they were playing instruments made from things like a bit of drainpipe or dustbin lids with elastic stretched over. It would have been exceptional were it not for the fact that the goblins insisted on singing, too. The voices she could put up with, just, but the words… Apparently, 'I Caught the Chicken as A Present for You, But You Didn't like It So I Gave It to Her Instead (So Why Are You Mad At Me If You Didn't Want It?)' was one of the most popular songs in their repertoire. It also had one of the shortest titles, making Sarah wonder if that was a directly correlative thing. Despite the lyrics, she was having fun dancing with her friends. Jareth had been right; the dancing of some was cringe-worthy, reminding her of an uncle who had danced at the reception of her wedding. Perhaps that was where they had learned it, she mused.

It was during the fifth chorus of 'A Good Goblin Nose Knows to Steer Clear Of the Bog in Warm Weather Whatever Whether It Makes Your Journey Longer or Not It's Not Worth the Snot That You Got That Now Tastes Of Bog Smell' that Jareth appeared, causing a hush to come over the crowd and the band to quickly silence. He grinned out over them, holding in his hand an envelope.

"I have here the results from the hunt," Jareth said, smirking at them all fidgeting in anticipation. "It was an admirable effort this year, and I feel confidant that all the eggs were found." A cheer rose from the crowd, and many of them looked pretty smug. "Without further ado," Jareth continued, "I would like to ask my wife to announce this year's winner."

Sarah smiled and blushed slightly as all eyes landed on her. She quickly made her way to the small stage, taking Jareth's hand as he helped her up. He handed her the envelope and she opened it, recognising his strangely loopy and spiky handwriting. She read the name and frowned, mentally phrasing it in her head before saying, "Lychesticia Alboniscicus!"

There were groans and angry stamping from those who did not win, and Sarah scanned the assembly before spotting one of them coming forward. She was not entirely certain what it was, but it looked rather like an overgrown rat standing on its hind legs, apart from its bluish colour and large elephant style ears. Once it had reached the stage it grasped Sarah's hand and said in a high squeaky voice, "Thankee, your majesty!" It moved on to Jareth and bowed saying, "Thankee, your majesty!" again. Jareth inclined his head slightly towards it.

"Now all that remains is for you to claim your prize."

The creature – Lychee Albusnus? – looked excited; at least, Sarah thought it did. It bounced up and down a bit and its ears perked up, anyway. Sarah looked from it to her husband, intrigued as to what the prize was.

Jareth raised one hand and a crystal formed. He stared at it for a moment in concentration, then held it out to Lucia Alba-Sinuses who eagerly but oh so carefully took it from him. "Thankee, Thankee, your majesty!" It squeaked, bowing a few times as it backed away. Jareth clapped lightly, inspiring a few others to clap too. Sarah joined in, but still was not entirely certain what the prize was.

"All that leaves me to say is enjoy the party," Jareth said, before taking Sarah's hand and leading her off the stage.

"What was that?" She asked him, as the band started up again ('I Don't Know Which Way I'm Going But It Would Be Much Easier If I Didn't Have To Worry About Your Need To Set Things On Fire All The Time').

"What was what?" Jareth said, pulling her to him to dance. It was quite upbeat and Jareth was showing that he must have taken dance lessons at some point that included Salsa.

"The prize," Sarah said, allowing him to spin her around.

"Oh, that." He pulled them back together, only to break away and move around her before holding her close again. "That was a dream."

"A dream?"

"Indeed," Jareth said, dipping her and leaning over. Perhaps, Sarah mused, this was not the best time to be questioning him and mentally pushed it aside, trying to remember to ask him later.

Eventually the party wound down and the hall emptied. Sarah had been pleasantly surprised to learn that it was tradition for Jareth to sing one song, and that thankfully Jareth did not sing songs like the goblins did. His was a simple song (with goblin accompaniment that worked, oddly enough) called 'Golden Leaves' and Sarah had enjoyed it. It certainly did not hurt that it was like he was singing to her, almost just for her the whole time.

It was late, though, and she really wanted to curl up in bed.

"You look tired." She turned to see Hoggle, Ludo and Sir Didymus.

"Yeah, I am," she admitted, stifling a yawn.

"Then thou shouldst, retire, my lady," Sir Didymus said.

"We were just coming to wish you goodnight," Hoggle said with a smile. "It was fun, today."

Sarah smiled warmly in return. "It was. I really don't see you guys as much as I would like."

"Well, you know where to find us if you want to, er, 'hang out,'" Hoggle said, trying out the term he had heard Sarah use.

Sarah knew he wasn't trying to make a point, but it still sort of hurt. She should make more of an effort to see them…

"We'd best be off," Hoggle said.

"Bye Sarah," Ludo said, wrapping her in a very hairy hug.

"Bye Ludo," she said fondly.

"I bid thee goodnight, my lady, and only the sweetest of dreams," Sir Didymus said with a bow.

"Night, Sir Didymus," she smiled, curtsying in return.

Sir Didymus and Ludo went on ahead as Hoggle said, "Well, g'night then, Sarah."

"Goodnight Hoggle," she said, pressing a kiss to his cheek. Hoggle frowned a bit at that, but did not say anymore as he lurched towards the exit.

"A lesser man might get jealous." She turned to see Jareth standing behind her.

"Good job you're not a lesser man, then," she said as she leaned in to him sleepily.

"You should go to bed," Jareth told her, kissing her forehead. "I will deal with the stragglers."

"Okay." She did not even feel like arguing on this one. "I'll see you in a bit." She gave him a small chaste kiss before heading up to their bedroom.

Jareth watched her leave before turning back to the hall. He made short work of evicting those remaining, and though ordinarily he would not approve of such laziness, he left the cleanup for in the morning.

He went over to the huge pile of eggs. He formed a crystal in his hand and threw it at the pile, causing both to vanish. He then formed another crystal, in which could be seen an overview of the Labyrinth. With concentration, glowing spots started to appear in various places; eight in total. He called them to the crystal and viewed them. Eight eggs missed. Better than last year, he thought. He closed his hand on the crystal and it winked out of existence.

Of course, really there was no need to hunt for the eggs. Jareth could very easily dispose of them himself. But of course, he smirked to himself as he made his way up to his bedroom where his lovely wife was waiting, where was the fun in that?

* * *

Long Author's note this time, so apologies in advance.

Again, I'm sorry this took so long. I think my updates are going to go from weekly to fortnightly. I can't do all my university work and do this at the same time every week, so now expect it every other week. There's also plot bunnies attacking me over Torchwood as well (Anyone watch that? I'm guessing not…) so I'm trying to satisfy my writing urges for that as well as keeping on top of this.

I _was_ planning on posting this chapter at Easter, but as I think I mentioned, I just couldn't get it to work. I really wanted to post this, though, as I wanted to explore Sarah's relationship with her friends more. They always seem to be surplus to the author's needs in fanfiction, even though they featured more in the film than Jareth ever did. I'm guilty of this too, so I wanted to give them a chance to shine…

I think I managed to scare a couple of you who reviewed this time – my deepest apologies, heh. Just ignore me and I'm sure I'll go away.

I have a question to ask – in America (don't you just think of Yu-gi-oh: the Abridged Series whenever you hear that?) how does the school system work? At what age does a child start school, what year do they start at, etc. In England they start off in reception class, then move on to infants (lower then upper), then Juniors (again, lower then upper. Each has two years, which caused us as kids to call it, lower lower juniors, upper lower juniors, lower upper juniors and upper upper juniors… Yes, we were weird) amounting to six years in primary school. After that is secondary school and you just get called years 7-11 and finally sixth form with lower sixth and upper sixth, or college (I don't know what they call themselves; I did sixth form) and finally on to University (which is where I am now, whoo). You guys have to stay at school until you're eighteen, right? (We only have to until we're sixteen, heh) What exams do you take and when?

Sorry, it's just I've tried finding out this stuff before, but there does not seem to be a clear explanation anywhere, and for a chapter I have in mind I kind of need to know these things. It would also be useful for future reference. You can just PM me that though…

And finally, I appreciate reviews. I was amazed and very pleased with the feedback I got on the last chapter. You guys are awesome and it really makes my day when you tell me you enjoy what I write. Of course, if you ever have any criticisms then I'd like to hear that too, since the whole point of this is to help improve my writing skills. Do not be afraid! Although I doubt you would be, I'm not even on the same continent as most/all of you, so it's not like I could seek retribution even if I did know who you were... My point is, let me know what you think (about the chapter. Though if you feel like divulging anything else, I'm always enthusiastic to chat to random people).


	13. Birthday Wishes

**Birthday Wishes**

Today was Toby's seventh birthday. It made Sarah feel old, knowing he was already seven, but she pushed the feeling aside. She had spoken to Jareth earlier that week and he had agreed to take her to visit her family that weekend. Toby was having a party Saturday, full of screaming children, no doubt, and Sarah had been sure to leave out that part to Jareth. So far as Jareth was concerned, it would just be Sarah's family, and who was she to disillusion him?

The morning, she reflected, had not started well. She should have known the minute she found out Max had used her shoes as a toilet that it was going to be a horrible day. But she had thought, rather stupidly, that it could not get any worse than that. Silly Sarah, she berated herself.

When she had walked into the throne room, the goblins had scattered, revealing a young woman they had apparently been trying to climb. Sarah had shrieked in surprise, causing Jareth to suddenly appear beside her asking her what was wrong.

"Who's that?" Sarah demanded, pointing at the woman.

"Oh," Jareth said, his tone saying, _is that all?_ "Her name is Ms Stone."

"Okay, but what is she doing here?" Sarah asked, walking over to her cautiously. The woman's eyes followed her, but other than that she stayed still. "And why isn't she moving? Can you hear me?" Sarah asked, addressing the last part to the woman.

"She can hear you," Jareth said with a small smirk. "But she is learning a lesson in silence, a trait which she is now mastering beautifully."

Sarah turned narrowed eyes on him. "What did you do to her?" She asked suspiciously.

"She was shouting at me," Jareth said, pursing his lips in a way Sarah recognised as him being very displeased. "Talking about calling the police and such. There is only so much I will put up with in my own castle; kicking the goblins was the last straw."

"You kick them all the time!"

"That is different."

"Why?"

"I am their king," he said, as though that explained everything. Sarah rolled her eyes.

"So?" Sarah said, and continued at her husband's inquiring gaze, "What is she doing here?"

"Currently she should be thinking about what she has done," Jareth said, smirking at the woman's frightened eyes.

"No, I mean _why_, why is she here?"

"Oh. I believe it is because she attempted to give Toby homework-"

"Toby!" Sarah exclaimed. "Oh no… He wished her away?"

"Indeed," Jareth said.

"Stupid boy!" Sarah said, shaking her head. "How did he even know the words to use?" Jareth was observant enough to know it was a rhetorical question and wise enough to keep quiet. "And I suppose he will have to run the Labyrinth to get her back."

It was more of a statement than a question, and Jareth knew she was not going to like the answer. Like it or not… "Toby does not wish to run the Labyrinth," Jareth told her. That was not strictly true, however. Toby wanted very much to visit the Labyrinth, even if it meant solving the thing. He did not, however, want his teacher back. He had been quite adamant about that part.

"What!" Sarah said, whirling round to face him with wide eyes. "But – he can't just leave her here!"

"My dear, he can, and he intends to," Jareth informed her. Jareth, for one, could not blame the boy. The woman was a nuisance, demanding he tell her where she was as though she were the one in charge. Jareth had taken her voice and movements and sealed them in crystals, so that she could only stand there and say nothing. He had rolled the crystals of her voice and actions around between his hands as he watched the goblins move cautiously towards her before getting bolder and finding things to do with her. They had scattered when Sarah entered, but they were creeping back now, ready with new ideas for the 'poseable scary lady.'

"But, what will happen to her?" Sarah said, biting her lip in worry.

"She will be turned into a goblin," Jareth stated, folding his arms and looking at the woman. Her eyes flicked to his and he felt a small amount of satisfaction in seeing the fear that was there.

"Jareth! You can't turn her into a goblin!" Sarah said, spinning round to face him.

"Why-ever not? She was wished to be taken away, the wisher chose not to try and win her back – therefore, she will be turned into a goblin." He did not take his eyes off the teacher as he spoke. "That is what happens here."

"Jareth, this isn't some child who has been whisked away in the dead of night, this is a grown-up, a teacher," Sarah said, looking at him imploringly. "People are going to notice she's gone; all those kids in Toby's class _saw_ her get taken away! What do you think is going to happen?"

Jareth frowned and focused on his wife. "What would you have me do?" He asked calmly.

"Let me talk to Toby," Sarah said, looking determined. "By the time I am done with him, he'll wish he had taken the homework."

AA

Toby's classmates were very surprised to see a man and a woman appear in their class, when just moments ago (to them, anyway) their teacher had disappeared. Apparently they were in for more fun today during Math than they had originally thought.

Jareth winced at the noisy children and froze time, bar himself, his wife and her young brother.

"Sarah!" The boy exclaimed, running forward to hug her. "I thought you were coming this weekend!"

Sarah folded her arms and Toby recognised the signs that meant his sister was unhappy with him. He stopped just in front of her as she said, "Tobias Kevin Williams, just what do you think you've done this time?"

Toby, despite the fact that she had middle-named him, played for ignorance. "What, I haven't done anything."

"Oh really? Then why is there a second grade school teacher standing in my castle?" Sarah demanded.

"I don't know," Toby said, looking down and absently kicking his foot out. "Maybe she just wanted to visit?"

"You can quit that for a start," Sarah said sharply. "I know what you did, and why. And you are going to run the Labyrinth to get her back, or so help me…" She left the threat hanging, making Toby look up at her again.

"What?" He asked, despite himself.

Sarah stood over him and said slowly and clearly, "I will tell mom and dad."

Toby looked up with fear before battling it back down. "You wouldn't," he said, watching her carefully.

"No? Went to test that theory?" Sarah challenged.

There was silence as Toby sized her up before his shoulders sagged and he said, "Okay, fine, I'll do it."

Sarah smiled with deceptive brightness and said, "Good! I'm glad that's settled. Now come and give your sister a hug!" Toby eagerly stepped forward into Sarah's embrace, glad that the confrontation was over. "Happy birthday," she said to him fondly.

Jareth watched the whole exchange with amusement. It looked as though he was going to have to make sure the Labyrinth was fairly easy to solve this time.

* * *

I considered not posting this, as I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, but other than taking it back and giving it a complete overhaul, I don't know what else to do with it. I also did not get around to writing something I wanted, but I wanted to publish the chapter anyway, so there may be a second half. It was supposed to be posted yesterday, but 1) I was busy with lectures, peer assessments and 2) my birthday, which was distracting… That is the significance of the date and the subsequent birthday chapter. I am now twenty-two, joy of joys. Very unfair that my birthday should fall on a Tuesday, though. I'm in lectures all day; Innovative Textile Constructions, nine till one, Graphic Design and the Internet, two till six and Digital Studio Photography, six till nine. Evidently I was not meant to enjoy my birthday this year. But no matter, the celebrations were today instead!

I would like to take the opportunity to present you with a small competition, as it were. You are completely free to not enter, tell me I'm stupid or whatever you wish, but it's really just for fun (although there is a prize for the winner or winners…). The challenge: to come up with as creative a way as possible of saying happy birthday. The prize – requires a short explanation. This story originated from a plot bunny that would NOT leave me alone, and I am sure you also get plot bunnies from time to time. So the prize is to give me a plot bunny, either included in this story, or as a story in its own right, depending on the outcome/bunny. You'll get to read over it and everything first to make sure it reaches your requirements. The winner(s) (if anybody bothers to enter) will be announced in the next chapter, whereupon they will have to send me the idea. Like I said, it's completely up to you whether you decide to do this or not. Since many of you seemed to like the opportunity to name the fox earlier on, I thought you might enjoy the chance to have a chapter written to your own desires.

Many, many thanks to all of you who offered their help with the American education system. It was extremely useful and will help me write another story I'm working on.

Other than that, I apologise for this chapter. I wish it was better. In fact, after reading it over, I'm fairly certain I will write a second part to this one. Hopefully I will be able to redeem myself. Any comments are much appreciated!


	14. What You Wish For

**What You Wish For**

Jareth suppressed the urge to roll his eyes as his wife fussed over her little brother.

"Now remember, you only have thirteen hours, okay?" She said, zipping his coat up. "I can't help you, but just remember to ask the right questions and you'll be fine. Okay?"

Toby, being a seven year old, felt no compulsion to suppress his eye-roll and did so, saying, "Okay okay, can I get going now?" Sarah bit her lip and hesitated before pulling him into a hug. Toby cried out in surprise and squirmed. "Sarah! You're choking me!"

"Sorry," she quickly said, letting him go.

Toby looked up at Jareth and they shared a look; women.

"You better get going, then," Sarah said, looking down towards the Labyrinth.

"Okay," Toby said, walking off down the hill. "I'll see you later!"

Sarah watched him go before turning to Jareth and pulling him into a hug. "I hope nothing happens to him," she said, burying her face in his chest.

Jareth stroked her hair as his other arm wrapped around her and said, "Do not worry; I shall not let any harm befall him."

She pulled away and looked up at him. "You better, or it won't be me you have to worry about, it'll be my parents." Jareth grimaced at that as Sarah continued, "I think it would be a good idea not to mention this little trip to them. Somehow I think they'll be less than understanding."

"Agreed," Jareth said. "Now, let us get back to the castle. We can watch young Toby's progress from there."

They faded from the landscape, and by the time Toby glanced back there was nothing left but an old tree and dust.

AA

Despite the fact that the fate of his teacher lay in the balance, and the fact that he only had thirteen hours to get through this Labyrinth on his own, Toby was excited. He had wanted to visit the Labyrinth ever since Christmas when he found out about it, and now he got to go through it! Although perhaps the reason for his excitement was partly because he would not have to do math again for the whole thirteen hours, or maybe it was because there was every chance he wouldn't be able to get to the centre in time and his teacher would become a goblin. It was hard to tell which prospect appealed to him more.

He knew, however, that Sarah would never forgive him if he didn't try his best, but maybe she wouldn't notice if he only tried _nearly_ his best. Surely Math class would be better if they were taught by a goblin…

AA

Sarah looked at the image of Hoggle in the crystal of her necklace. "Just guide him as best you can, okay?"

"Alright, I'll do me best," Hoggle promised, and the image faded.

Sarah sighed. She needed her brother to get his teacher back. How on earth would she explain it if he did not? Technically Hoggle was not allowed to show Toby the way, but he could nudge the boy in the right direction…

AA

Toby looked up at the wall with a frown. How exactly was he supposed to get in? He wandered around the edge, looking for any clue of a door, or maybe a useful vine to climb. He was so busy looking up that he forgot to look down.

"Watch where you're going!" Exclaimed the little man he had just walked into.

"Sorry," Toby quickly said. He watched as the man brushed himself down while grumbling and said brightly, "Hi, I'm Toby."

"That's what I thought," the man replied, squinting up at him.

"Um," Toby said, looking around, "Do you know how to get inside the Labyrinth?"

"Yep," the man replied.

A beat passed and Toby said, "Can you tell me then?"

"Yep, I could," he said.

Toby frowned. "Are you always this annoying?"

"Me annoying?" The man said, waving his arms in a wide gesture. "Me? I'm not the one asking pointless questions."

Toby scowled before remembering what his sister had said. He thought carefully before saying, "How do you get inside the Labyrinth?"

"Ah," the man said. "You gets in there." He pointed behind Toby and the boy turned to see two doors opening where there were no doors before.

Toby walked over and peered through, looking left then right. He turned to the little man stood behind him. "So I've just got to pick a direction and go, right?"

"Pretty much," the man replied. "Would you go left or right?"

Toby bit his lip and turned to look again. "Left," he said eventually.

The man stepped forward, looking down either way. "Why left?"

"In mazes you're supposed to keep one hand on the left wall and you'll get to the centre," Toby said.

"This ain't no maze, boy," the man said.

"It's Toby," he said with a frown.

"What's Toby?"

"My name."

"Why should I call you by your name if you can't be bothered to learn mine?"

"Oh." Toby looked at him and said, "Sorry. So what's your name?"

"Hoggle," he replied.

Toby brightened. "You're Sarah's friend!"

Hoggle looked taken aback for a moment. "She said that?"

"Of course!" Toby said grinning. "She told me I can trust you."

Hoggle shifted between modesty and preening. "I suppose…"

"Come on!" Toby said, starting to walk down the left way.

"Eh?" Hoggle stared after him for a moment. "What makes you think I want to go with you?"

Toby turned and said, "Don't you want to have an adventure?"

"I've already had an adventure, thanks," Hoggle said. "Once was quite enough."

"Please?" Toby said. "Come with me. It'll be better with two of us."

Hoggle hesitated before saying, "Maybe we should try a different way?"

"Do you know how to get through the Labyrinth?" Toby asked.

"I know a couple of short-cuts," Hoggle conceded.

Toby bit his lip. It was tempting to try and get through in record time, but a goblin teacher… "No," he said eventually. "Let's go this way."

Hoggle sighed. "Fine, lead the way."

AA

"Interesting," Jareth commented, watching from a crystal.

"What, what are they doing?" Sarah asked, looking up from her pacing.

"Hoggle offered him a short cut, but Toby turned it down," Jareth said thoughtfully. "Perhaps Toby wishes to solve this on his own."

Sarah frowned. "Maybe. I hope Hoggle will be able to get him through properly." She turned and looked at the teacher. The goblins were standing back to admire her new pose and Sarah had to admit it was good. How they'd managed to get her balanced like that without her falling over… She really should get them to stop, though. It was not very dignified for the woman. "Jareth, can you give her back her voice for me?"

A pained expression crossed his face. "Why would you want that?"

"I just want to talk to her," Sarah said. "Come on, how bad can she be?"

Jareth raised a brow but produced a crystal and threw it at the woman. Ms Stone promptly celebrated having her voice back by screaming. Loudly.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," Sarah said, trying to make herself heard. "We're not going to hurt you, I swear."

Ms Stone stopped screaming long enough to say, "Let me go!"

"It's not as simple as that," Sarah said wincing. "There are rules, you know, but don't worry, my brother is trying to get you back as we speak."

The woman's eyes widened and she said, "Your brother? Tobias Williams?"

"Toby," Sarah confirmed.

Ms Stone looked as though she wanted to move her arms, perhaps throw them up in frustration, but her movements were still stolen from her. "That must mean you're Sarah."

"Oh, he's mentioned me?" Sarah asked, all but beaming.

"Yes, and at least I know who to blame now," Ms Stone said, her eyes narrowing on Sarah.

"What?"

"He's always got his head in the clouds, no discipline and no concentration. He talks about you as though you live in a fairytale," Ms Stone's eyes flicked around the room, "which I suppose is appropriate, considering what I know now."

"Now hang on a minute," Sarah said, bristling. "There's nothing wrong with having a bit of imagination. He's only seven."

"He lacks focus, preferring to pretend he's a knight on a quest or a prince rescuing a princess," Ms Stone scoffed. "His math grade is suffering for it, as are some of his other grades. I assumed at first it was his parents fault, but now I see with a sister like you where he is getting it all from."

Sarah's eyes narrowed on the woman and she said, "Jareth? I don't think she's learned her lesson yet about the importance of silence."

Jareth grinned from his corner and as Ms Stone started to say, "Now let's be reasonable," a light shone from her throat and rose out of her mouth towards Jareth, solidifying into a crystal form by the time it reached his hand.

Ms Stone's mouth hung open, her ability to move it gone with her speech. Sarah moved forward and said, "Catching flies?" She smirked as the woman's eyes stared at her and pushed the teacher's chin up to close her mouth. She turned to the goblins and said, "This pose is good guys, but let's see what else you can do."

The goblins grinned and advanced. This new toy was so much fun.

AA

"I don't think your theory about going left is working," Hoggle said as they continued down the path.

"There's got to be a turning somewhere," Toby said, peering on ahead.

"Maybe we should spice things up a little and go right?" Hoggle suggested.

"There is no right, there's only forwards," Toby said. "How can it just go forwards?"

"Maybe there is a right and you're just not looking properly."

Toby turned to Hoggle and said, "Fine, what would you do now?"

"Well," Hoggle said, "I personally would turn back the way we came-"

"I'm not going all the way back to the start after I've come all this way," Toby wailed. "There's got to be another way."

Hoggle huffed. "In that case I'd go through the opening a little further up."

Toby straightened and said, "There's an opening?" He looked ahead and said, "Where?"

"Right there," Hoggle pointed.

"I don't see anything," Toby said with a scowl.

Hoggle sighed. It was clear who got all the brains in the family. Although remembering what Sarah had been like, perhaps not. He walked further along and said, "Right here."

Toby followed him, stepping over a tree branch and said, "It's just wall."

"Oh really?" Hoggle challenged. He stepped through the opening, making Toby's eyes widen considerably. "Just wall, is it?"

"Hoggle, you're brilliant!" Toby exclaimed, moving forward. He grinned as he looked around and then said, "Come on!" He tore off to the left, oblivious of Hoggle's surprised pleasure at being called brilliant.

AA

Jareth watched as his wife directed the goblins. When Sarah put her mind to it, she really could get them to do pretty much anything she wanted, and without any kicking or threats. Jareth was impressed. It probably helped that this time she was getting them to do something they actually enjoyed doing. Quite how they were managing to get the woman to bend that way without breaking any bones was anyone's guess…

AA

Toby had gone on ahead of Hoggle around the corner and had stopped to stare at the creatures before him. They had their backs to him and were muttering between themselves. They looked like horses from here, except he had never seen horses that were pink and blue before…

He cautiously stepped forward and the ear of the blue one twitched in his direction. Both heads turned in unison towards him and he saw that they were in fact unicorns. They turned to him fully and smiled brightly at him.

"Uh, hi," Toby said, glancing back the way he came to see Hoggle ambling towards him.

"Toby!" Hoggle called. "Don't just walk off and leave me!"

"Toby," the blue unicorn said. "Hi Toby! We found a map, Toby."

"Yeah Toby," the pink one chimed in. "We're going to Candy Mountain. Candy Mountain, Toby! Come with us, Toby!"

"Yeah Toby, it'll be an adventure," the blue one said. "We're going on an adventure, Toby!"

"I'm already on an adventure," Toby said, finding the unicorns odd. "I don't have time to do two."

"Hey, you guys leave him alone," Hoggle said as he rounded the corner and saw them. "Go and bother someone else."

"Toby," the blue one said, drawing out the word.

"Go on, get!" Hoggle commanded, looking annoyed.

The unicorns looked at each other before the blue one said, "Goodbye, Toby."

"Yeah, goodbye Toby," the pink added before they bounced away. Toby couldn't help but think there was something slightly sinister in the way they said it.

Hoggle kept one eye on them as he said to Toby, "Stay away from those two, Toby. They're always up to something."

Toby nodded, trusting Hoggle's judgement. Even if Hoggle had not said anything, he doubted he wanted to be around them; they were creepy.

AA

Sarah admired the goblins handy-work before turning to her husband. "So, how are they doing?"

"They are making their way to light section as we speak," Jareth said, looking up from his crystal.

"There's a light section?" Sarah said, looking down at the crystal.

"Of course, where do you think we get the lights at night?" Jareth said.

"So what's in the light section?" Sarah asked. Upon seeing her husband's look she rolled her eyes and said, "Apart from light, obviously."

"The harvesters live there," Jareth said. "And the shimmerbugs, nothing much to worry about. Well…" he amended, looking thoughtful.

"Well what?" Sarah asked, concern colouring her face.

"There are the hustlers…"

AA

Hoggle stuck close by Toby nervously. "We have to be careful through here, there are some nasty types hanging about."

Toby was too busy taking in the sights to pay Hoggle much notice. It had gotten darker, and there was a lot of white, almost blue mist swirling about, making it difficult to see. There were walls, of a sort, made from vines and ivy. Here and there were lights floating seemingly on their own, lighting up the vapours and generally creating a pretty, if somewhat haunting effect. Their path took them past one, floating just above head height. Toby reached up to touch it, but it ascended just out of reach. He tried to jump to get it but it moved serenely away.

"I wouldn't bother, if I were you," Hoggle said. "You can't catch 'em that way."

"How do you catch them then?" Toby asked, frowning up at it thoughtfully.

"There's generally a big net involved," Hoggle said vaguely. He had never liked this part of the Labyrinth. Too spooky, and you could never see far enough in front of you to feel safe.

Toby was still staring up at the light when something descended on them, capturing the light, Hoggle and himself within. Hoggle shrieked while Toby squeezed his eyes shut and squealed briefly. Cautiously he opened his eyes again and looked at the thin, knotted rope that was holding them and said, "Big nets like this one?"

Before Hoggle could reply, a figure emerged from the mist.

AA

"What are the hustlers?" Sarah demanded.

"I suppose they are like pirates," Jareth said, frowning into the crystal. "They take the lights without permission and sell them at a discounted price to other Labyrinth dwellers."

"And you just let them?" Sarah said incredulously.

"Of course I do not 'just let them,'" Jareth said in annoyance, looking up at her. "I cannot, however, be everywhere at once. Besides, they do not harm anyone, so it has never been a top priority."

"What kind of king are you?" Sarah said with a huff.

"One who recognises that a little healthy competition for his workforce does wonders for productivity," he answered absently, glaring back down into his crystal. "Blast this fog, I cannot see a thing."

AA

"Well well," a nasally voice said. "What have we here?"

Toby watched as the figure stepped forward. It was a bird, by the looks of it, only it seemed to be about the same size as Toby. It had black feathers, an orange beak and oddly, an eye-patch. It was even wearing a waistcoat with huge brass buttons, and Toby could not help but notice the overall effect was distinctly pirate-y. Behind the bird there were several others emerging from the mists, all looking to be birds of one type or another. The shadows being cast from the light trapped with them made the group look eerie and menacing, but to be fair, Toby thought, they would probably manage to look pretty menacing even without the shadows.

"It seems," the bird continued, "that we have an unexpected bonus this time." The other birds chuckled – or at least, Toby presumed it was chuckling. It sounded more like squawking.

A small, green bird with a red patch of feathers on its head jumped forward towards them and said, "What should we do with them, boss?"

The blackbird eyed them up, cocking its head to one side before saying, "Bring them."

* * *

I'm so sorry about the long wait on this one. What with handing in all my university work and finishing (finally!), getting my heart broken and moving back home I haven't been able to focus on this properly. There was also a matter of my writer's block, probably not helped by the fact that this is supposed to be nice and cheerful and I've been feeling, well, not nice and cheerful. I was originally going to post Toby's whole trip through the Labyrinth in one chapter and then do one more before moving onto the next arc, but I decided to post it in two halves instead. I wanted to give you something before I went on holiday. Oh yes, that reminds me: I'm going (or coming, I suppose, from your point of view) to America-land! Florida, specifically. Two weeks of fun and relaxation. Huzzah!

And now, to announce the winners! (Anyone remember last chapter I offered up a competition? Anyone…?) Yes, I did say winners, plural. It was hard to chose, so I went for three. Firstly to OceanFae, for a very fun idea and for the bit about the dying penguin. It really does help. Secondly to Doro.neko because I love the idea of stalking somebody and springing 'happy birthday' on them in a public display of embarrassment. And last, but by no means least, to yodeladyhoo as it is an awesome idea, and confusing to anybody not in on it. I love confusing people. So, to you three, if you PM me with your bunnies I will work on getting those written for you. I couldn't say when they'd get written, but now I've got lots of free time, so it's not likely to be too long.

So finally, as I said before, I am going on holiday and I will be away for two weeks. This means that unless I can wrestle my brother's laptop away from him, I won't be able to reply to any of your reviews for a while either. Other than that, I apologise once again for the wait, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter and let me know what you think!


End file.
